Blue, Green, and Hazel
by ILuvWatchingTV
Summary: It wasn't his tail or his slightly wet chest glistening under the sun that suprised him. It was because he wasn't dreaming, he's real and he is currently sitting right in front of him with a smile he grew to love in his sleep, "J-James?" "It's good to see you again, especially after all these years..." AU, Kames and Cargan.
1. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1: First Encounters**

"Nope…too small…too big…does she like pink?" the eight year old blonde murmured to himself.

Kendall Knight was at the beach looking for sea shells for his mom's birthday. He knew she liked the ocean so he thought the best present for her will be a shell from the beach. The blonde was currently sitting on the sand his red plastic bucket next to him filled with different assortments of shells he found in the past hour. He was currently looking through them trying to find the best ones and so far he only found two, a blue and green shell. After discarding the rest of the shells he placed the two in his pocket and grabbed his now empty bucket and stood up wiping the sand from his shorts and continued his search determined to find the best shells for his mom.

A sudden sound of a loud splash surprised him and turned towards it, a large smile lighting up his face at the sight. One thing he loved coming to the beach was to watch the dolphins jump and play with one another. He quickly ran and got on top of one of the largest rocks to have a better look as they played, he took out a camera from his other pocket and took pictures as best as he could. He took a couple of close and far ones then he checked each and every one, with the help of his dad he could be able to print them and use them as a birthday card.

As he searched through them he cocked his head when he stopped in one of the pictures and narrowed his eyes, there in the lower right hand corner of a photo was a light red color in the water. Placing his camera in his pocket he looked down and saw a thin red color in the water. Carefully maneuvering on the rocks he followed the trail with his eyes, the color started to get darker a bit as he got closer to the shore finding out that they disappeared around a few rocks farther out in the ocean. Not wanting to give up his search he made sure to stay away from the edges of the rocks, until he spotted the trail again, noticing how the further the trail was the darker the color becomes.

He noticed that the trail was away from the beach to a much smaller one, one that he is forbidden to go without his parents, but he noticed the rest of the trail reaching a cave he recognized. He quickly got off the rocks once he was near the sand and ran all way to the mouth of the cave. The cave was on the side of a cliff, it was large, nearly two stories high and a mile deep. It was also in the middle of the shore so the saltwater still went inside when the waves crash against the shore creating a small river inside. He once went inside after his dad gone in and checked if it was safe, according to his dad, it was dangerous especially in storms when the water would go in making the floor slippery taking everything inside to the ocean. Sometimes there will be bad people doing bad things like smoking, one of the many reasons why he was forbidden to go inside. When he first came here he expected to find treasure or a map in a bottle, or a pirate ship or skeleton, but was disappointed when all he saw were dark walls and a couple of empty beer cans.

He saw the red trail lead inside and with a deep breath he stepped forward. He placed a hand on the wall as he walked and kept his eyes on the water. The water was shallow only reaching his stomach the trail becoming dark as he walked, he noticed that the deeper he went the less light there was. Before he decided to stop, he saw a small sparkle of light wear the trail was coming from, turning his head slightly his eyes widened and his lips parted letting out a gasp in shock. There on the edge of the river was a teenager; his upper body was on the shore lying face down, but what shocked the young boy was not the male lying on the floor of the cave, it was the rest of him that made him a believer of his mom's fairytale stories. In the water, instead of legs there was a large white tail; four feet long with white fish scales that were filled with cuts and blood along with dirt and sand on the edges of the wounds. They looked more red, pink, and black than white at the moment.

Kendall took a step forward, but his foot slipped and he yelped, he was able to grasp the wall tightly with both hands as he regained his balance and made a quiet 'phew' as he wiped his forehead. His eyes widened again when the teenager opened his eyes and widened in fear before he lifted his own head, his lips also parted in shock. The young blonde noticed that he had tan skin, short hair that nearly reached his shoulders and amazing light brown eyes colored eyes.

They both stared at each other not saying a word, when the merman tried to move he hissed quietly and made a grimace his eyes showing both fear and pain making the blonde boy concern at his state. "It's okay," he said making the merman's eyes widened in fear again. "I won't hurt you," he said softly as he slowly walked to him.

The merman moved back slightly, but bit his lip when he felt pain in his lower body. Kendall sat on his legs and scooted closer until he was in reaching distance, he stretched his hand and placed it on the merman's, he gave him a small smile when he relaxed a bit, "see? I'm not bad."

The merman did not reply instead he kept his gaze on his hand on top of his, Kendall eye's roamed to his tail and carefully placed a hand on his lower back slowly sliding to his scales. When he was near one of the cuts he heard a hiss and a tight grip on his wrist, he quickly pulled back and turned to the merman with a slightly angry and painful expression, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt you, honest."

The merman's expression softened and he let go of his wrist then he lied back down on the ground keeping his gaze on the young boy.

The minute he heard a loud yell he immediately woke up and to his horror found a small human a few feet away from him. He had short blonde hair and emerald eyes and he also had what appeared to be two pieces of rags on his body and black slippers on his shoes showing his feet. He's heard of humans torturing and experimenting on them ever since he was a child he had been warned to never go near one and to never go to the surface.

However this human seemed concerned when he tried to move away from him and hurt his tail in the process. He was also surprised when the human placed a hand on top of his own, it felt soft and warm, comforting him and for a minute distracting him from the pain. For some odd reason he also felt his heart skip a beat or two, before he could think any further, he felt a sharp sting on the back of his tail and grabbed his wrist. For a moment he thought the human was going to harm and prepared to defend himself, but one look at his guilty expression and heard his apology he let it slide. Too tired to do anything else he lay back down and watched the human cautiously as he looked at his tail in awe.

Not wanting to cause the merman any more pain, Kendall made sure to keep his hands to himself and looked at his tail with both an amazed and a concerned gaze. His tail was cut in a strange pattern he recognized, but couldn't place it no matter how hard he tried to remember, it was still bleeding making the water dark. However it stopped immensely, but he could tell the merman was in pain and could not move.

_What happened?_

"I got trapped in a net."

Eyes wide he turned toward the merman, "w-what?"

"I got trapped in a net," he repeated, the blonde noticed his voice was scratchy and quiet, most likely because he was tired from the way his eyes were drooping a bit. Turning to the merman's tail, he realized they were small squares, this brought a memory in his mind when he found a dead fish in a fishnet that washed on his shore, its small body cut and bloodied in the same pattern of the net.

"How?" he asked quietly.

The merman sighed, the blonde didn't know if it was because he was tired or didn't want to tell him. A moment he spoke, "a dolphin got caught in a fishnet and I helped it get out, but I got caught in it too. The next thing I knew I was in a lot of pain and I heard voices, it turned out the fishnet wasn't abandoned as I thought it was."

Kendall clenched his fist and narrowed his eyes in anger, the merman continued speaking. "I was able to get away taking the net with me, I swam as far as I could, but they followed me, I found this cave and hid inside, and that's how I ended up here and with all this." He slightly tilted his head toward his injuries.

"That's so cruel!" Kendall said making the merman raise a brow at his action. "I get they have to catch fish to eat, but dolphins," he shook his head, "that is wrong, and you got hurt, man I knew my dad should have shot them when he had the chance, but no instead he called the coast guard and dealt with it le-gul-lili, assholes."

Kendall gasped and covered his mouth with both of his hands, "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to say a bad word."

James smiled, but it quickly turned into a grimace when he felt a sharp pain near his fins.

The young human's eyes widen in worry, "what's wrong?"

"The net," he said through clenched teeth. "It's still on my tail."

Kendall scooted back and leaned forward a bit looking at the end of the merman's tail. He had no idea how he didn't see it before, but near the merman's fins there is a net tied around him, making him bleed as it cut his scales. An idea popped into his head and immediately turned to him taking his hand again, squeezing it in reassurance. "I'm gonna go get something to help you; I'll be back soon okay?"

The merman's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed his wrist before he ran out the cave, "no, wait, you can't tell anyone about me."

"I won't I promise, a Knight never breaks a promise." Before the merman could argue, the blonde ran as fast as his small legs could carry him out the cave.

The merman bit his lip in worry and lied back down on the ground keeping his gaze on the mouth of the cave, waiting for the young blonde to bring other humans to come and take him away to do with what who knows what to him. But he couldn't help but have a bit of hope swell in his chest as he waited.

Kendall ran across the small beach to the rocks, making sure he got to the other side safely and as fast as possible. Once he reached the other side he ran to the trees near the beach, he quickly moved his gaze across a couple of trees before it fell on a large one near a palm tree. He ran to it and quickly got on his knees he found a small hole on its base and placed his hand inside, he smiled when he touched something hard and smooth and took out a first-aid kit. He then ran back to the beach and to the rocks before he ended up in the other side again, the blonde made sure to have a strong grip on the kit as he had it close to his chest when he jumped and ran. In less than twenty minutes he reached the cave and went inside, he panted heavily as he got on his knees near the merman as he tried to catch his breath.

The merman was surprised to see him again and alone with a white box. He grew concerned when he got on his knees and breathed heavily, he noticed his hair sticking to his forehead and his cheeks red. "Are you alright?"

He nodded, "I'm fine…just...give…me a…minute."

The merman did as he was told and waited for the blonde to calm down, a few minutes later the young human grabbed the white box and opened it. He cocked his head to the side as he watched him mumble 'no' and 'not good' as he went through the things inside. There were different assortments of bottles and boxes, many he had seen and recognized, other he had never laid eyes on.

"Ah-Ha!" the blonde raised a white bag and opened it, he took out what seemed like a long thin piece of metal with two holes at the end. He watched as he took off one of his rags and slippers and stepped into the water, walking toward his tail.

After he got rid of his light blue shirt and black sandals, Kendall stepped into the water, slightly shivering at the cold temperature he continued walking until he reached his tail. He pulled up his shorts until it reached his thighs and crouched then he gently grabbed the net he took his scissors and started to cut. His tongue poked out as he cut the thick rope, he smiled when he cut through, "I'm sorry if this hurts."

The merman was confused for a moment before he clenched his fists and hissed in pain.

As quickly as he could Kendall grabbed the rope and pulled it slightly to lift off one of the merman's cuts. He quickly let go when it was halfway cut and continued with the next. The merman lowered his head hiding his face on his forearms and bit his lip to keep himself from crying out loud in pain, not wanting to scare the young human.

Slowly, Kendall grabbed the net and lifted it relieved to see it loose. "Could you move your…uh…the thing at the end of your tail?"

The merman looked over his shoulder and noticed that the blonde created a hole in the net, but it wasn't big enough for his fin. With some difficulty he moved his right fin to the left, the human child moved removed the net from his fin with ease. The merman did the same to his left moving it to the right; Kendall removed it and then stood up and pulled the net away from the merman.

He sighed in relief as his tail was free and the pain went away to a throb he could deal with, lying back down he watched the human pull the medium size net out of the water and the cave. Kendall walked a few feet away from the cave and the ocean, he ignored the hot sand burning his feet as he threw the net aside, turning back he quickly went inside and sat on the merman's side dipping his feet in the water. He sighed in relief and placed the scissors inside the opened kit, "how do you feel?"

"A bit better now that the net doesn't burn my tail anymore, I hate those things." The human child nodded in agreement. Looking back at his tail Kendall saw the dirt and grime on his tail; digging through his first aid kit he found a dozen packets of alcohol pads. He opened one and leaned to one of the cuts and gently dap the wound.

"Ow!"

The human child pulled back slightly, "sorry."

"What are you doing?" he asked in anger, but was also curios what he was doing.

"I'm cleaning the cuts, so they won't get infested- invented- envicted- what's that word?" he asked himself quietly as he tried to remember.

"Infected?" the merman guessed.

"Yeah! That's one, infected."

"I could heal myself."

"Heel, what's that word?" the human asked giving him a curious expression.

"Heal, it means I can…" He tried to think of the right words to say to a child for him to understand, "make myself feel better, get rid of these cuts."

"Then why don't you?" he asked with concern, but to the merman it sounded a lot like a challenge.

He looked away, "I'm…tired." he mumbled loud enough for the blonde to hear.

"Did you eat breakfast today?" he asked, cocking his head to the side.

"What's breakfast?"

"Um…let me ask again, did you eat anything in the morning?"

The merman shook his head, "not really."

"Hmm?" The blonde moved away from the merman's tail, much to his content and went through the kit again. He took out a medium size bag and ripped it open with his teeth, he slipped the wrapper off revealing a chocolate chip cookie. Kendall stretched it toward him; the merman moved back and narrowed his eyes at his hand.

"What is that?"

"It's a cookie," he smiled, "it's really good. Here." He moved forward a bit.

"What do I do with it?"

"You eat it." He said with a 'duh' tone.

Hesitantly, the merman took it. He placed near his nose, it had a sweet scent and made his mouth slightly water, parting his lips he took a small bite and chewed. His taste buds instantly exploded at the taste and he closed his eyes as he savored the taste moaning a bit at how good it was.

"It's good huh?" Kendall asked with a chuckle. His answer was a moan as the merman took a larger bite of the cookie. Looking back at his tail, he decided to take this opportunity and dabbed it, he looked back to see the merman still enjoying the cookie. He quickly dabbed as much cuts as he could before there was a loud shout of pain, "Hey!"

"So was the cookie good?" he asked ignoring him as he continued cleaning it.

"Stop that!" he moved his tail making the human miss.

"I'm trying to help you."

"I don't need it!"

"You're such a baby," he mumbled, "will you please let me? I'm almost done."

The merman looked at his tail, the dirt and blood that dirtied his tail was mostly clean, it almost made his tail almost seem white again. He turned back and was surprised for the fourth time that day to see the human boy with a small pout and his eyes sad at not being able to help him. With a groan he placed his head back on his arms and mumbled an irritating 'fine.'

Kendall immediately smiled and went back to work. After a few alcohol pads he leaned back and smiled, "there all done."

The merman sighed in relief and placed his arms underneath him, crossing himself for warmth and placed his head on the ground and closed his eyes relieved that the cold floor cooled his heated skin. Kendall noticed the merman shaking a little and his cheeks a bit red. He moved his hair a bit before he placed his hand on his forehead, surprising the merman. "What are you doing?"

"You're really really warm," the young human said, removing his hand.

"What does that mean?" he asked, slightly annoyed that he won't let him rest.

"It means you're sick," Kendall took out a bottle of water and a small hand towel from the kit. He opened the bottle and stretched it toward him, "here, drink."

He raised a scrutinizing brow, "what is it?"

"Water…not salt water. You can drink this one," he said, he frowned when the merman gave him and the bottled water a small look between exhaustion, anger, and curiosity. "Please." He said, making the merman's feature soften. One look from the human's face and those emerald eyes of his and he can't say no. He sighed and lifted himself slightly leaning on his elbow as he took the bottle and took a small sip, he soon began to take large gulps, realizing that he was very thirsty before he gave a satisfied sigh. Kendall took the nearly empty bottle and placed it inside the kit, then he scooted closer to the water and dipped the towel in, after watching his mom doing it many times, he twisted the towel removing any excessive water and folded it. Scooting back to his original position he moved his hair from his neck and placed the towel on top of his skin. "There that should help."

"With what?" The merman asked curiously, not complaining that whatever the human placed on his neck was cooling him a bit, but it also made him shiver a bit.

"You shouldn't be really really warm, I learned that you need to be normal warm by putting something cold, but not too cold to make you feel better." He explained as he grabbed his shirt and rolled it up into a medium size ball.

"Where did you learn that?" he asked amazed at the human child's knowledge of body temperature.

"I have a friend, he's really smart and wants to be a doctor; he taught me a few things when people are sick."

"What's a doctor?"

"Someone that helps you feel better when you're sick."

He nodded as he understood his explanation, "so a doctor is a healer?"

"Heel-ler?" he said slowly the new word on his lips.

"Someone who makes you feel better," he answered.

"Oh!" he smiled in understanding, "then I guess it is like a doctor."

He placed his rolled up shirt next to James, "here, you can lay on it and use it as a pillow."

James looked at it, not wanting to upset the human he placed his head on it, comforting him. Kendall covered his mouth from a yawn and lied next to James, "pick your arm up a bit."

"Why?" he asked as he situated himself carefully lying on his side and situated the moist towel on his neck.

"You'll see," hesitantly the merman did as he was told and raised his right arm a bit.

Kendall moved so his back was touching the merman's chest. Bewildered, the merman watched as the human grabbed his arms with his small hand and placed it around him, before he was able to move or push the human away.

"There," he said as he curved his own arm and laid his head on it, before he placed the merman's arm next to his small body. "Since I forgot my towel I thought I could be next to you so you don't have to be cold anymore.

The merman stared at the child not really knowing what to do in this kind of situation, "what's it like?"

"Huh?" he looked down at the human, the blonde looked at him with an excited expression.

"What's it like to live underwater? I bet it's amazing," he said with a mesmerized tone.

"Well," he took a moment to try the find the right words to speak. "During the summer there are a lot of dolphins you can play with, or swim with them, and you can go to some caves and see moon crystals go glow like stars. Um, sometimes see sunken ships-,"

"Like pirate ships!"

"Once in a while."

"Cool."

"I'm curious," he raised a brow at him. "How did you find me?"

He turned to his back so he was staring up at him, "I was on the beach looking for shells for my mom. I wanted to get the best ones because her birthday is coming up in a few days," he reached to his pocket and showed him the two shells he found. "One blue for the ocean and one green for my eyes she loves so much." He put them away and took out his camera, to the merman it looked like a simple silver box, "I saw dolphins and decided to take a pictures of them for my mom too, in one of them I saw the color red in the picture and found it in the water and decided to follow it." He put his camera away and looked up at him, "it lead me here and the rest you know."

The merman stared at the child as he yawned again and tried to keep himself awake, by blinking rapidly whenever his eyes became heavy. A small smile appeared on his features as he watched the blonde; he had to admit the child was adorable and horribly stubborn, but he did help him and gave him comfort in his time of need. _Guess not all humans are bad, especially him._

Another thought came to his mind, one that never came until now, "hey,"

"Huh?" he opened his eyes a bit, "what?"

"I never asked, what's your name?"

"Oh, it's Kendall and yours?"

"James."

"Nice to meet you James," he gave the merman a smile over his shoulder.

"You too and thank you Kendall for helping me."

"S'okay," he said before his finally closed and fell asleep.

James watched as Kendall breathed softly, slowly he removed his arms from his small limb and raised his head a bit. Leaning on his elbow, he moved his shirt and placed it underneath him, before he lowered his head. Then he wrapped his arm around the small blonde before he laid his own head on his arm and pulled Kendall closer to him before he closed his eyes to rest.

* * *

**Hello! and welcome to my new story! This thought came to my head and it grew so I decided to write it and place it here. I've read BTR mermaid (man) fics before and I wanted to try it out for fun. I hope you like this chapter and please review, they mean a lot to me. Hope you stick around for the rest of the story. Thank you for reading!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2: Dreaming**

The waves crashing onto the shore was the first thing James heard before he opened his eyes. He blinked multiple times until his vision became clear and froze when he took in his surroundings. Quickly, sitting up he hissed in pain when he felt a sharp sting travel up his spine, looking down he saw multiple cuts, some already leaking blood and was a bit dirty with black of dirt sticking on the sides. He pondered for a moment before his memories of the last couple of hours passed through his mind, one standing out the most.

Kendall.

Turning his neck, he looked down to see the human child still sleeping soundly, his body curled up slightly and his face half hidden on his rag he was lying on. Feeling something cool on his shoulder he touched it to feel a soft moist material, he grabbed it and realized it was the towel Kendall gave him earlier for his fever. He threw it in the still open kit he saw in the corner of his eye and looked back at his tail. He gave a nervous glance to the blonde, making sure he was asleep he raised his hand and placed it on top of one his nearest cuts, his palm glowed light blue and gently placed his hand on top of it. A few moments later he lifted his hand to see the cut disappear to a thin line on his scales, he repeated this process several times while glancing at the sleeping blonde in case he stirred.

James sighed in exhaustion and rested for a moment trying to save his energy. Slowly he raised his tail and flicked his fin up and down, testing it. He did the same to his lower tail raising it and bending it back and forth, he was still sore, but not in pain like he was before.

Turning back to Kendall he contemplated what he should do with him. Leaving him in the cave was out of the question; he could freeze or drown to death. James could take him to his underwater home, but will his body survive the pressure, unless he uses his power, but at the moment he didn't have enough to fully use them. He could take him back to his parents, but he had no idea where the boy lived, unless he-

"Kendall!"

He froze.

"Kendall!"

He guessed it was a human, male, probably in his middle or close to middle age; due to his voice. Straining his ears he closed his eyes and concentrated on his surroundings. There were footsteps, not a lot so there was only one human, and by his pace he seemed quite in a hurry, however the human did call out Ken-

"Kendall!"

The human was close, very close. Looking down at the sleeping child, he thought whether to take Kendall with him or leave him here for the human male to find him. However he didn't know if it was his relative or someone he knew, he had to think fast.

"Kendall!"

Making up his mind he placed his arms under his legs and back and gently lifted him off the ground, he quickly grabbed his rag and placed it on his stomach. He placed his left arm around the child and used his other hand to close and grab the white medicine box. With some difficulty he quickly moved to the water, making sure he kept Kendall close to his chest and not touching the water, he made it to a medium sized boulder and hid behind it. Peeking out he saw a tall silhouette form in front of the mouth of the move, he seemed tall and held a long black object that emitted a bright white light from the glass protruding from the object.

"Kendall! Son! Are you in here?" James heard his echo reverberate of the cave's walls. "Kendall!"

_Son?_

The light moved toward him, he quickly moved and stood still as he saw the light and held Kendall closer to him, he didn't know whether to fear for their discovery or he could accidentally suffocate the blonde child or the latter.

A few moments later he heard a sigh and footsteps again, but this time they were fading. Peeking from behind the rock, he watched as the human walked away, his shoulders slumped, but with his head held high.

That was probably Kendall's father, when he felt safe he moved away from the rock and swam closer to the entrance of the cave. He watched the human male walk on the rocks of the bottom of a cliff near the shore; he gave a final glance over his shoulder before he moved to the other side disappearing from the merman's view.

James bit his lips and looked down at Kendall, he should return the boy to his parents they must be worried, by the way his father was looking for him. He swam back inside the cave and left the white medicine box in a crack large enough to fit he found when he hid behind the rock earlier. He placed a few rocks on top of it and a few in front so the waves won't take it out to the ocean when the tides come in. Making sure he had a good hold on Kendall, James peeked out of the mouth of the cave and swam forward to the ocean, he looked up at the sky to see the sun nearly set on the horizon. It will be sunset in two or three hours, it made him think how long he had been in the cave, last he checked the position of the sun it was nearly midday, it also made him wonder how long the human child was away from home. It would be logical that his parents will be worried after not seeing their child for a long period of time they start to worry and begin their search for him. Fortunately for him, the ocean calmed much as the day was near its end, that the waves heading to the shore hit his back barely wetting Kendall in his arms. He reached the rocks at the end of the cove where he saw the human disappear; sticking close to the rocks he reached the end and peeked.

There on the large beach were two humans each far away from each other in different areas with the black objects emitting light. When their backs were turned to the ocean he will quickly swim and hide behind large boulders and stones that were near the shore. He repeated this action, carefully maneuvering between the rocks and blocking the water from hitting Kendall as he got closer to the shore.

As he got closer, he could hear the frantic yells of Kendall's name from the two humans on the beach. James will sometimes squeeze between difficult to fit openings and bend his body as he got closer noticing how the water got more shallow meaning he was near the shore. Before he could continue moving he saw something out of the corner of his eye and turned toward it. Curious, the merman moved forward and looked at the object sitting on the sand next to a large stone; it seemed like a small bowl with a yellow handle and could faintly see his reflection on its smooth surface. Peering inside he saw a few shells of different sizes and color, cocking his head to the side he noticed a black marking on the side of the object, he narrowed his eyes as he tried to decipher the human English language. "K-Ken-d-dal-ll, Kendall!"

His eyes widened in surprise when the object belonged to the sleeping child, a memory popped into his mind when he glanced at the small pieces of shells inside.

"_I was on the beach looking for shells for my mom. I wanted to get the best ones because her birthday is coming up in a few days"_.

So that's what the object was for, he was collecting shells for his mother as a gift for her celebration of coming into the world.

"Kendall!"

He moved back, making sure he was concealed by the size of the stone and strained his ears to listen to the humans as they talked in quieter tones.

"Francis, I can't find him anywhere, do you think he went back to the house?" James heard a female voice ask, probably Kendall's mother.

"If he did, Joanne would have called us to let us know by now." He heard the familiar male's voice said.

"Then what do we do? I'm starting to get worried, we won't be able to find Kendall once it's night."

"Then we keep looking."

The merman heard footsteps and Kendall's name loudly as they continued their search. He peeked from his hiding spot to see the female human wipe something from her cheek, she was short, with red-orange hair and brown eyes, and the similar rags Kendall wear, but larger. She had a worried expression as she looked at every spot on the beach her eyes could see to find her son.

James moved back to where the red object was and grabbed Kendall's rag, placing it on the sand, making sure to be away from the water, he smoothed it out and then placed the blonde's slippers nest to the stone he was hiding behind.

He prepared the rag again to make him comfortable, but when he tried to place him on the cloth he couldn't move. Looking down at Kendall, he bit his lip at the sight of the sleeping child. He didn't want to let go.

James felt Kendall was secure and safe in his arms, the way how his small body gave him warmth and how his soft touch comforted him; he couldn't bear to be apart from him. He sighed, how could a human affect him like this in only a short amount of time? Make him feel…happy? He felt happy before he met the human, but this was a different kind of happy. It was a mix of peace, content, and joy that made his chest warm at the thought of his emerald eyes glow at the child's beaming smile. There was also a part of him that wanted to keep him from harm, from being upset or sad or disappointment, to keep him from any type of danger and protect him. He shook his head, Kendall couldn't make him feel this way, there was no possible way and yet he can't seem to place him on his rag.

"Kendall!"

The merman closed his eyes, he was exhausted, his body was still sore, and his mind was begging for a moment of rest. He lowered his head until his face was buried above Kendall's crooked neck and his nose touching his skin and breathed his scent, he placed a soft kiss on his cheek before he pulled and moved slightly forward. Reluctantly he gently placed the sleeping child on his rag and watched as Kendall curled slightly on the sand and ignored the missing warmth and the need to take him back in his arms.

He peeked out of the stone and scanned the beach he saw the human male a few feet away near the trees. The merman gently spoke using his Voice to command him, consciously. "Turn."

The human male stopped walking.

"Turn."

He moved his neck to the side, but did nothing else.

"Turn."

This time he did so.

"Walk."

He did. When the human was close he quickly grabbed the red object and went back to where he came from through the boulder's opening.

James stopped using his Voice, bringing the human back from his stupor. The merman banged the bucket twice on the nearest rock, hoping to catch his attention. He strained his ears and heard footsteps heading to Kendall's direction. There was a gasp and a loud shout, "Kendall!"

The merman heard another set of footsteps and peeked out from his hiding spot to see the human female get on her knees and take Kendall in her arms hugging him tightly. As their attention was on the blonde, James quietly left the rocks and swam farther away from the shore. He rose to the surface to see the couple, happy being reunited as a family again; the merman felt his chest tighten a bit as they started walking toward the trees.

Looking down at the object in his hands an idea formed in his mind at the thought of the blonde, turning his back to the shore he went underwater going back to his home to get his much needed rest to accomplish his task tomorrow. He also hoped that he could see Kendall tomorrow as well, hoping to see him and his smile again.

* * *

Kendall groaned when he felt he couldn't breathe right and was surprised to see he was in his mom's arms and saw his dad right next to her, frowning he looked around to see he was back on the beach.

"James?"

"Do you have any idea how worried we were? How many times do we have to tell you don't go to the beach by yourself Kendall; it's not safe." His mom said as the two parents stood up.

"I'm sorry mama," the blonde mumbled, feeling his eyes heavy again.

"Why don't we go home?" he heard his dad say. "We all have been through enough for one day. We can deal with this tomorrow, Kendall looks beat."

She sighed, "alright; let's go home."

They both turned heading back to their home. Kendall saw a familiar white tail fin disappear into the ocean. He stretched his hand toward it and made his hand into a fist, wanting to reach to him, to James, but couldn't.

"James," he mumbled, trying to call out to him, but his mouth didn't want to work well.

He felt sad he wasn't able to say goodbye, he really liked James, with a small frown his hand went limp and so did his head and his vision blurred. Not knowing if they were wet or because he was tired and sleepy Kendall's world faded to black. He unconsciously curled up wanting to get back to the warmth he felt before he went to sleep with the merman.

* * *

**Wow! A lot of people really like this story...I'm glad you do. Thank you those who reviewed, favorited, follow, and read this story. ****Hope you enjoyed this chapter! **


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3: Pinky Promises**

After nearly three hours of talking and lecturing about his safety and his punishment Kendall's mom went to the grocery store along with Mrs. Mitchell. The minute she left the house Kendall started begging his dad for them to go to the beach. Fifteen promises, and seven deals later they were both walking toward the beach. Mr. Knight shook his head when they got to the beach and watched his son run to the rocks near the cliff. They agreed that they will both look for shells and other items on the beach for Mrs. Knight's birthday gift if Kendall did a lot of things he wouldn't normally do. As a parent Francis took the opportunity at his son's bargain and quickly left the house. However, they needed to make sure they get home before she does otherwise they will both be in a lot of trouble. He sighed, "Jennifer was right he did inherit our stubbornness."

Kendall ran as fast as his legs could carry him to the rocks where he last left his bucket. He still has his two shells he found yesterday on the beach in his pocket, but the main reason he came back was to meet James again. He didn't really remember much from yesterday, after his day with the merman only waking up in his mom's arms and then in his bed. He really really hoped it wasn't a dream, it didn't feel like a dream, he was sure of it and so he begged and nearly cried in joy when his dad said yes. Now here he was by the rocks where he left his bucket, only to find it gone. He looked around the rocks and stones nearby, but couldn't find it anywhere. Sighing he sat on the sand near a pool of water and looked at his reflection; his eyes were starting to water and saw his nose twitch as he sniffled.

He wanted to go to the cave to see if he was there, but since his dad was close by it was out of the question. He should have thought about where the merman would show up, the only reason he was in the cave was because he was hurt. Now that he was gone he could be anywhere in the ocean. A tear fell into the pool and he looked away, he was an idiot for believing that he could see him again. Maybe it was all a dream and the merman was nothing but a-.

"Why so sad, Kendall?"

The blonde gasped and turned to see the merman with a concerned expression on his face. He immediately stood up and threw himself at him his small arms wrapping around his neck and his legs around his torso. "James! You're here!"

The merman had been underwater close to the shore since daybreak waiting for Kendall; however he knew the human child would still be asleep, but he still waited. When the sun rose a bit in the sky James would take peeks above the surface to see if he was there or not. When he wasn't looking at the shore he would look at the red object in his hand wondering if the blonde would like his findings or if he should get different ones. He only got a few hours of sleep last night finding shells and contemplating which ones he would like for his mother. After checking at the shells for the hundredth time he rose to the surface and was surprised to see the human male from yesterday. Quickly James swam to the stones near the shore and hid behind them, peeking out he realized the human male walking in the beach and picking up small items before dropping them back on the sand or throw them toward the water.

He wondered if Kendall was with him and decided to go back to where he dropped him off yesterday. Maneuvering through the small openings between stones and boulders and making sure he kept a grip on the object, he nearly made it to the spot when a small cry caught his attention. Looking down at the water he saw small ripples and looked up to see it was coming from the same spot where he left Kendall yesterday. Cautiously he swam toward it and peeked to see Kendall, he moved forward and his face fell at the sight, the human child was sniffling and was wiping his eyes with his hand. He could see the fresh tear trail down his cheek making him concerned, "why so sad, Kendall?"

In less than three seconds he was balancing himself and the child with his arm trying not to fall in the water. He placed the red object on the sand and placed both of his arms around the small body, feeling content to have him back in his arms. But it was short lived when he remembered the blonde was crying and tried to pull back, but he had a tight grip on him. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"I was scared," James heard his muffled answer.

"Of what?"

Kendall pulled back so he was facing him his eyes watering again, "I thought you weren't real, that everything…" he shook his head unable to complete his sentence only to be replaced by a smile. "But you are real and you're here."

James gave him a smile, "well I can assure you that this is real, that I am here, and I have a surprise for you."

"Really?" his eyes sparkled with curiosity. "What is it?"

James lifted Kendall off of his torso and placed him on the sand and then he picked up the red object and showed it to him resulting in a smiling blonde, "my bucket!"

Kendall instantly took it and got on his knees, picking each shell one by one and placing them on the sand, "wow, they are so big. What's this?"

"It's a con shell. They say that if you place it near your ear you could hear the ocean inside."

"Really!"

He nodded, "yeah, but it only works when you're away from the beach, it's like having your own miniature ocean at home."

"That is so cool." He placed it next to his bucket and picked up another. "This one is really pointy," he said as he tapped a long pointed shell.

"That's a turritella shell."

Kendall placed it next to the con shell and looked inside the bucket, surprised to see a black clam. Picking it up he gave it a scrutinized gaze as he touched the smooth surface, he had seen many of these on the beach, but most of them were either cracked or broken. He tilted it and was surprised to hear something move inside.

"Open it," James said with a smile as he watched the blonde examine the clam in his hand.

Kendall grabbed the bottom and the top of the clam and lifted the cover gasping at the object inside. It was a shiny white ball the size of his largest marble, he picked it up and gently placed it in his hands, it glowed under the sun's morning rays making it shine. "Wow, my mom has these, but they are so tiny," he explained to James. "I know it starts with a 'p', purse, peach, pears, no, press-,"

"Pearl," James said.

"That word! Pearl!" he turned to James, "thanks James mama is gonna love this for her birthday."

"Thank you Kendall, for helping me," he said, "it's the least I could do after what you did for me."

"How's your tail?" Kendall asked remembering the scars and blood it had. He didn't want to remind himself of the merman's injuries, but he wanted to make sure James was okay.

"Why, don't you look for yourself?" James said sitting up and laid his back on the boulder for Kendall to have a look at his tail.

Kendall bit his lips and placed the pearl back inside the clam and on the sand before he got rid of his black sandals and stepped into the water. Taking small steps he walked to James and looked at his tail. His eyes widened at the sight, they weren't bloodied, or filled with dirt or grime; they were white like the pearl in the clam, shining bright under the sun that it made the color change from yellow to pink. Kendall didn't realize he was about to touch him when he saw his hand only an inch away from the tail, he quickly pulled it back as if he got burned.

"It's okay; Kendall," James said only receiving a doubtful look from the blonde. "You can touch it, it doesn't hurt anymore."

Turning back to his tail, he slowly stretched his hand until he touched his tail. It was wet, smooth and warm under his touch as he moved his hand back and forth marveling at the merman's tail.

James smirked as he flicked his tail, spraying Kendall with some water. The blonde squealed and backed away wiping some water from his face, before giving a playful glare at the merman, "Hey!"

He chuckled and turned his head when Kendall splashed him in retaliation. They continued splashing each other when James froze at the shout of the blonde's name, "Kendall!"

They both gave each other a worried and fearful look before Kendall went around the boulder toward the voice and James went to hide.

"Dad," the blonde said when he found his father near the boulder he and James were, "what's up?"

"I couldn't really find anything worth wild for your mom, found anything?" he asked.

"Uh…" Kendall gave a gaze at the boulder, "some stuff."

"Let's go see." Kendall's eyes widened when he started to walk toward the large rock. "Wait!"

He ran in front of his dad, blocking his path. "Wait here and I'll get my bucket."

"You found it?"

He nodded, "yeah, I did. Wait here."

Kendall quickly went back behind the boulder and placed the shells inside before he grabbed his bucket. He turned and screamed at the sight of his father suddenly in front of him, "dad!"

He chuckled, "easy there, sport, I wasn't trying to scare you." He looked down at the bucket and whistled at the amount of shells inside. "Wow, bet your mom will love these, where did you find them?"

"Uh…they just…came out of nowhere….in the rocks…" he finished lamely, hoping his dad will believe him.

"They must have been stuck here when the tides come in," Francis said thoughtfully, when he picked up the con shell.

Kendall nodded.

Francis's eyes wander to a black object; he placed the shell inside and picked it up, he was surprised when he heard something rattle inside. He opened it and his jaw dropped at the sight of the pearl inside, "Kendall," he said as he picked it up and examined it. "Where did you find this?"

"In the rocks," he said, the blonde quickly moved when his dad dropped the clam, his attention focused on the pearl in his hands. "Do you think mom will love it?"

"Yeah, sure," he said in a quiet voice as he turned the pearl around with his finger tips. "Where exactly did you find this?"

Kendall pointed at the pool he and James were in earlier, "there."

Francis looked at the pool with a frown on his features, "are you sure?"

He nodded, "yeah I am."

"Hmm," Francis looked at the pearl again. It was silent except for the waves crashing against the shore.

James eyes burned with anger at the sight of Kendall's father gazing at the pearl in his hands. He recognized that look from many people, both humans and merpeople when they become greedy, his gaze moved to the blonde looking at his father while holding the clam in his hands. He was too young to recognize greed. When he heard Kendall's scream earlier he was prepared to protect the blonde until he saw the human male and stopped, but kept a close eye on him as he peeked from his hiding spot. The human was looking at the shells with awe until he saw the clam and was instantly entranced by the jewel inside. He didn't know how much the price of the pearl was in this decade, but he was pretty sure it increased exponentially over the years after he heard how humans savaged the ocean floor looking for a few of those jewels.

"Give the pearl to Kendall," he commanded with his Voice. The human's male arm twitched, but he didn't move, "give the pearl to Kendall, now."

The human male did as he was told.

Francis didn't know what made him decide to give the pearl to the eight year old as he stretched it toward him. Kendall took it and placed it inside the clam before he placed it inside the bucket.

"Well," Francis cleared his throat, "I think it's time we head home."

"No!" Kendall yelled.

He gave raised a brow at him, "what?"

"Um…we should look for more shells…yeah! That's it; we have to look for more." Kendall said with wide eyes.

"What for? You have enough for your mother."

"Yeah, but not for the baby."

Francis gave him a scrutinized gaze.

"And," the blonde continued, "maybe you could find more pearls in the other rocks."

His eyes brightened at the idea, "we could stick around for a few more minutes."

"Great!" Kendall jumped in excitement. "You look that way," he pointed at the opposite direction away from the small pool, "and I'll look here."

"Alright," Francis said without giving a second glance at his son as he walked away.

Kendall sighed in relief and turned back to the pool, "James?"

The blonde instantly saw him appear from behind the rock a few feet away. "That was a close one," he said after he sat on the sand letting his feet inside the water.

James moved so he was closer to the blonde, "Kendall I need you to listen to me and make me a promise." He said in a serious tone immediately grabbing the child's attention.

"What is it?"

James stretched his arm and grabbed the clam and held it between them. "I need you to take care of this pearl and give it to nobody except your mom, alright?"

He cocked his head to the right, "why can't I give it to my dad so he can take care of it?"

"Because it's really really important that your mom gets it, it is for her right?" Kendall nodded.

"Promise me." James said, using his Voice slightly to make him promise.

The human child was still curious why James didn't want to give it to his dad, but saw his serious face, the same face his mom does when he needed to talk something really important to him. He instantly decided to make the promise and raised his pinky, "I pinky promise not to give it to nobody except my mom on her birthday."

With a questioned expression he raised his own hand and copied Kendall's action raising his pinky. The blonde curled it with his own and shook, James did the same before they parted and Kendall took the clam and held it close to his chest.

James felt ripples in the water and could tell it was the human male looking for clams under the rocks and other pools near the shore. He turned when he heard Kendall sigh and saw his disappointed expression, "what's wrong Kendall?"

"I'm not supposed to be here," he picked up some sand and let it fall through the slip of his fingers. "I'm grounded."

"Grounded?" James asked. "What's that?"

"I'm not allowed to come to the beach anymore for a week," he said with a pout.

"So you're punished?" he nodded.

"Yeah, I wasn't supposed to come yesterday to the beach. I broke the rule and now I'm grounded."

The merman frowned in disappointment, "so you won't come to the beach much."

He sighed again, confirming his assumption.

James took his hand and gave him a smile, "I'm upset that you're punished, but at the same time I'm happy that you broke your rule otherwise I wouldn't have met you."

Kendall let out a small smile, "I guess so; it's still bad I can't come here anymore."

He shrugged, "I can wait for you."

"Thanks James."

The merman squeezed his hand, "any time."

James felt the ripples stop and heard footsteps coming toward them, "your father is coming."

Kendall held the clam tighter, "I'll see you later?"

James noted it was a question instead of a statement and gave him a reassuring smile and raised his pinky, "I pinky promise."

Kendall raised his pinky and they shook.

James smiled and splashed him with a bit of water, making him squeal again. Kendall retaliated, but the merman was already too far avoiding his attack. "I'll get you next time James."

The merman laughed before he left the pool and hid between the stones before his father showed up. "Did you find any?" he asked.

The blonde shook his head as he slipped on his sandals and grabbed his bucket, "no, sorry dad."

His face fell, "let's go home."

They both walked next to each other toward their home while James was watching them until they disappeared through the trees.

Francis kept giving Kendall glances as they walked, but instead of giving glances to his son he kept looking at the clam in his hand.

They stopped in front of their two-story house and sighed in relief when they didn't see Mrs. Knights' car in the driveway. It was a medium size old wooden house, its boards painted white with dark green paint lining the windows and doors. It had four bedrooms, two bathrooms, a large kitchen with a dining room, a study room, a large living room, a garage built next to it with the same color, and an attic. There were trinkets and potted plants outside their home along with a swinging bench on their porch and a few lawn chairs in front and in the back of the house facing their backyard, the ocean.

"I'm gonna go hide the shells in my room," Kendall said as he started to make his way toward the house.

"Wait! Kendall!" Francis yelled, for his son to stop, but it was too late when he heard the door being shut on its own, making him curse under his breath for not getting the pearl sooner away from his son.

Kendall ran up the stairs to his room and stashed his full bucket in his closet then went near his bed and got on his knees in front of a dark blue rug. He moved the rug away showing the wooden floor and removed a loose wooden board. It was his secret hiding spot he found when he was six years old, he stashed his money a few toys and other trinkets that were special to him. He placed the clam inside and placed the wooden board back and patted it before he placed the rug on top. The blonde felt his stomach growl a bit and decided to go to the kitchen for a snack; he was surprised to see his dad in front of his room when he opened the door.

"Hey Kendall," Francis smiled.

"I'm hungry; could you make me a grilled cheese, please?"

He nodded, "sure thing sport, but first," he crouched down until he was eye level with his son. "What did you do with the pearl?"

"I hid it so mama won't find it," he said with a proud smile, before he walked toward the kitchen.

Francis sighed as he watched his son go and gave a glance at his son's room, he could sneak inside later and try to find it. Most likely, when Kendall was asleep or watching tv or playing outside, he gave a nod of satisfaction at his plan before he went down to the kitchen to make a sandwich for himself and his son realizing he was hungry as well.

"Don't worry James," Kendall said as he walked down the stairs and looked at the back door facing the ocean and let out a smile. "I made a promise and a Knight always keeps his promises."

* * *

**Hope you like it. I had a bit of difficulty with this one. I have a lot of things to do this week such as homework, but I like writing, it's fun. Thank you for reading!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4: Temporary Hiatus**

"Happy Birthday!" Kendall shouted when his mom stepped through the front door.

Mrs. Knight smiled as her son grabbed her hand and eagerly dragged her towards the kitchen. Her smile widened when she saw her husband and the Mitchell's with party hats, and a cake with lit candles on the kitchen table. "Happy Birthday; sweetheart," Francis said as he went and gave her a peck on her cheek.

She chuckled, "nice hat."

Before he could open his mouth to retort, Kendall came bursting to the kitchen with his red bucket with Logan trailing behind him with a present in his hands. Francis quickly shut his mouth and stared at the bucket in his sons hands; he had been in his room dozens of times trying to find the pearl. But all he found was loose change, shells, and a lot of toys.

"Happy Birthday, Mama Knight!" Logan said as he handed her present.

"It's from us," Joanne said grabbing her husband's hand.

Quickly unwrapping it and she gasped at the mahogany box in her hand. It was small with a flower design on the cover and a small keyhole in the middle, the key was small also with a lose string attached to it similar to a bracelet next to the flower design.

She smiled at her reaction. "I knew you kept saving money for it, so we decided to buy it for you, good thing you didn't otherwise I wouldn't know what to get for you."

"Thanks Joanne, this means a lot," both women hugged. "Now I could use the money for Kendall's dentist appointment."

"Wished mama bought the box so I wouldn't go," he muttered to Logan, causing the young brunette to chuckle.

The blonde raised his red bucket towards his mom, "here's your present mom."

Jennifer placed the box near the cake and took the bucket, she gasped at its content as she took each shell out and placed them on the table, "their beautiful, Kendall."

He grabbed the con shell and stretched it towards her, "put it close to your ear so you can hear the ocean." She smiled and did as she was told while Kendall reached toward his pocket and took out the clam. Jennifer placed the con shell on the table and watched curiously at her son when he showed her a gray clam, "this is for you too mom, hope you like it."

She and the rest of the guests gasped when Kendall opened it to reveal the largest pearl she had ever seen. Everyone in the room stared wide eyed at the jewel mesmerized at the size and glow it emitted.

"Oh my god, it's huge," Joanne gaped.

"Kendall," Jennifer took the pearl and placed it in her hand feeling it soft and smooth under her touch. "Where did you find this?"

"At the beach, near the rocks," he said, with a smile.

Mr. Mitchell whistled, "judging by the color, luster, and size of that pearl; it's got to be worth at least four or five grand."

"Five thousand dollars," Francis repeated with widened eyes.

"You found this at the beach?" Jennifer asked amazed that her son's finding.

He nodded. "Yup, I thought it would make a great present because you have smaller ones, I thought you might like this one. Do you like it?"

She removed her gaze from the pearl to her son and smiled, "I love it honey thank you very much."

Her son beamed, "look inside the clam mom."

She did as she was told and for a moment thought if there was more than one pearl, instead there were two small plain shells, a blue and green shell.

"I picked those especially for you, mom," Kendall said with a proud smile.

She immediately knew what he meant, blue for the ocean and green for his eyes, two things that she loved most in the world beside her family and her house. "Thank you honey, these shells are the best present ever."

Joanne cleared her throat.

"I mean they are _all_ the best presents ever."

Joanne gave her a knowing smile; the best presents always come from their children.

"I know exactly where I'm going to put these," Kendall watched his mom as she opened the wooden box and placed the pearl and the shells inside. She closed it and locked with the small gold key and then placed it on her wrist, "so who wants cake?"

After singing 'Happy Birthday' and eating cake, they spent the rest of the day playing games and having a great time together. Francis gave a glance toward the box when he passed by the kitchen with a gleam in his eyes, he now knew where the pearl was, it was only a matter of time and patience until he could get his hands on it.

"Dad!" he looked away and left the kitchen heading toward his son and spent the rest of the evening with his wife and guests.

* * *

**A Week Later**

James was ecstatic the minute he saw Kendall sitting on top of one of the boulders, would be an understatement. He was overjoyed, nearly cried out in happiness when he saw Kendall wave his arms at him. James went back underwater and swam toward the rocks near the shore, going through the same cracks between the stones until he reached the pool and saw the blonde with a large smile on his face. After he got rid of his black slippers Kendall stepped into the water and ran to him. James braced himself as the blonde crashed into him with a large hug; the merman did the same placing his arms around the human child before they pulled back and smiled at each other.

"Told you I'll wait," James said.

Kendall hugged him again, again, and again, every time he visited him. James will wait for him late in the mornings by the shore until he saw the blonde sitting on the rocks or when he comes out of the trees. Kendall will usually spend an hour with James or two, if he was really lucky, and they will talk about each other's lives and answer each other questions about their world. The blonde told him about his mom's birthday, the merman was thankful that Kendall was able to keep the pearl away from his father, and will talk about his family, his home, his friends on land, school, and a baby. James asked what a baby was and realized it was Kendall's new sibling that has yet to be born; he would smile when the blonde talked about playing with him/her, going to the beach together, play games and do all sorts of fun activities.

James would purposely change the subject when the blonde will ask about his family. Kendall was too young to know about his family troubles and wanted the human child to not know much about his past.

The merman will mostly talk to the blonde about the ocean, his home, a large cave with multiple tunnels and small caverns that were almost like rooms. He would talk about crystals, shiny rocks that glow by a specific type of light, playing with dolphins, talked about his companions, other merpeople, and cities under the ocean, and more making the blonde's emerald eyes glow in awe.

Other than talking they will spend their time playing hide and seek in the rocks, splash each other, play tag, and make sand castles. There will also be times when James will take Kendall to the ocean, but not too far only close to the shore and get splashed by the waves.

Even though they spent only a short amount of time together neither of them have been most content in their life. They both wanted it to last, but unfortunately for James it only lasted for three months. The merman noticed the sea creatures migrating towards warmer waters mostly in the South; he felt the slow change in temperature in his scales when he felt a shiver go up his tail to his spine. He dismissed it until he noticed the dolphins swimming toward the opposite direction instead of swimming by the coast where they usually swim. After a week, he had to make the painful decision of leaving his home to head to the tropics, normally he would be ecstatic and plan where he would go whether it was Central America, Hawaii, or the Bahamas and have some fun with his friends who are also there because of the change in water temperature.

But this time he couldn't bear to leave now that he had to be separated from the blonde. He didn't have the heart to tell him he would be gone until the next solstice. However, if he didn't leave soon, he would have a difficult time moving in the ocean with his tail freezing and spasm painfully.

One day while Kendall was talking about a man in a spider costume, James winced when his tail clenched painfully for a second making the blonde look at him in concern.

"What's wrong James, are you hurt?"

He shook his head, "No, I'm fine."

The merman tried to give him a reassuring smile, but he felt his tail clench slightly sending a wave of pain up his spine. James fell forward and landed on his forearms; biting his lower lip he muffled a cry of pain.

"James!" the blonde got in the water and placed a hand on his shoulder.

He looked up at the blonde with a shaky smile, "I'm fine."

"Liar," the blonde muttered. He saw the merman's body tremble slightly and his cheeks were flushed almost making him look like he was having a fever. "James what's wrong, you better tell me the truth this time."

The merman sighed and looked away, "I should have told you sooner."

"Told me what?" the blonde asked, curious.

James shoulders slumped a bit, and lowered his head, his bangs covering his eyes, "ever wonder why there aren't fish here when the season changes?"

He furrowed his brows in confusion. The merman sensed it and spoke, "when the temperature in the water changes it affects the fishes and other creatures of the sea in different ways that includes merpeople. For me, specifically, my tail gets cramps or clenches itself making it hurt, when that happens it is a sign for me to move to warmer weather, warmer waters."

Kendall stayed silent as he his young mind processed his words, "so you have to leave?"

James turned to him and gave him a sad and guilty expression, he nodded a moment later.

The blonde frowned, his lower lip tremble a bit, "why didn't you tell me?"

"I tried," James explained. "But you were always happy when we have these visits and we only have a short amount of time together, I couldn't."

James looked away not being able to see Kendall upset. Now he will be and will find a way for not trusting him and he will have to-.

"You're an idiot."

His brows burrowed in confusion, before he turned to him. The blonde had an angry expression on his face. He expected guilt, disappointment, sadness, not anger. "What?"

"You are an idiot," he said again. "If you needed to leave then you should have."

"But won't you be upset if I left?"

Kendall clenched his hands into small fists controlling his emotions and the sudden burning in the corner of his eyes as he nodded, "I will miss you so much, but if it's good for you then you have to leave. If you stayed here for me you will get hurt and I will be sad that you're in pain because of me. I don't want that."

A tear fell from the blonde's eye and he quickly wiped it away before James did. "Will you come back?"

He nodded. "I will when the temperature changes, most likely in the summer solstice."

"Next summer?"

"Yes."

"Oh." Kendall looked up at James with sad eyes, "I guess this is goodbye."

"I….guess it is," The merman's chest clenched painfully at the blonde's sadness and wanted nothing more than to comfort him, but he didn't want to worsen his already gloomy mood. James never imagined this; he never thought that Kendall was willingly letting him go.

Kendall raised his pinky towards him, "promise me you'll come back."

The merman did the same and connected his pinky with his and shook, when they parted Kendall threw his arms around him and hugged him tight. James did the same and wrapped his arms around his small body.

"I'll miss you Kendall."

The blonde held back a sob, "I'll miss you too, James."

James was the one to pull back from the hug and give the blonde a small smile; he leaned forward and kissed his forehead. He pulled back and chuckled when he saw the blonde's red cheeks; the merman gave him another smile before he moved back towards the cracks, leaving the pool.

Kendall quickly left the pool and grabbed his sandals then climbed onto his usual seat. He sat and looked at the ocean, a few moments later he saw James rise from the water and wave at him. Kendall did the same and watched the merman dive back to the water his white tail fin the last thing he saw before he let the tears fall from his eyes. "Bye; Jamie. See you next summer."

* * *

**I felt a little bad about this one, I could have done better, but this came out instead. Hope you like it, thank you for reading. **


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter 5: Changes**

Mr. and Mrs. Knight were worried about their only son, Kendall. It's normal for parents to be worried about their child with their future, their education, their health and thousands of other reasons parents could think of in less than a minute. They only want what's best for their child, but for them they are trying to think of ways to know what's wrong with him. It all started when the blonde didn't come back from the beach after his hour of 'beach time' for the day. Mrs. Knight immediately went to the beach and had her cell phone ready to call her husband in case they had to do a search again. She saw her son sitting on a stone near the shore mindlessly staring at the ocean; she frowned and walked toward him. Before she could scorn him, her mouth was left parted in surprise at the look of anguish Kendall had on his young features. His hair was disheveled, his eyes were red, and was sniffling his nose wiping it on his shirt.

She immediately went into mother mode and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Honey, what's wrong?"

He turned to her, her eyes widened when he suddenly threw his arms around her; she had to take a few steps back to balance herself from the impact as her son cried into her shoulder. She immediately wrapped her arms around him and cradled him, brushing his hair, and whispered comfort words to him. He just kept crying and clutched her shirt; she quickly walked back to their house and went to the living room still holding her crying son.

When he calmed down she pulled back and grabbed a box of tissues on the coffee table and wiped Kendall's cheeks and nose, "what's wrong sweetie?"

His eyes started to water again and whispered, "he's gone."

She had to strain her ears to listen, "what?"

He sniffled, "he's gone."

"Who's gone?" she asked perplexed.

"My friend," he went back to his mother's shoulders and cried. "He had to leave and now he's gone."

"Who's James?"

For a moment, he was afraid that he'll break his promise and quickly made up a lie that was partially true, "he's a dolphin I met at the beach."

She held him in his arms as he cried and patted his back when he started to have hiccups. After nearly two hours of crying, Kendall fell asleep. Jennifer carried her son up the stairs and to his room and placed him in his bed. Afterwards she went to her room and changed out of her wet shirt and then went to the kitchen to prepare lunch and think about Kendall's mysterious new friend.

* * *

"He's crying over a dolphin?" Francis asked after he took a bite of his chicken.

Jennifer nodded. The two adults were sitting in the kitchen table; Francis was eating his dinner while Jennifer talked to him about Kendall's dilemma and her concern over their son. "I think so, he keeps mumbling James in his sleep and earlier in the afternoon he mentioned a dolphin."

"That would explain why he kept going to the beach every day."

She bit her lip, "I'm a little worried, he never looked so…broken," she gave a glance toward the stairs.

"We should give him some time," he said thoughtfully, "remember when we got rid of his night light he was sad without it, but got over it in a few days. I bet it was an imaginary friend he made to keep himself from being bored; don't worry he'll get over it in a day or two."

He was wrong. Kendall had been the same for nearly a week, only taking a few bites of his meals before he went back to his bed and lay on it staring mindlessly at the ceiling for hours or out his bedroom window. When Jennifer tried to make her son talk about his problems he would either shake his head and leave her or start to cry. Even Francis began to grow worried after watching his son do nothing, it awfully reminded him a lot of the people in those asylums who are not deemed to live in society; he had been watching too many horror movies. Neither of them had ever seen him so depressed, whenever they would talk to him they would see his dull empty eyes instead of their usual glow brightening his emerald color.

During the second week, he didn't get better; if it was possible he got worse. When the Knights tried to make their son finish his lunch, he vomited, and curled up on the couch holding his stomach in pain. He wouldn't play with his toys or watch his favorite cartoons or movies, only watch the wall or go outside and sit on the bench and gently swing, looking at the direction of the ocean. He refused to go there when Francis asked him if he wanted to, the blonde claimed that it wouldn't be the same without James. Jennifer nearly thought about seeing a psychiatrist when her son woke up in the middle of the night screaming and crying over James.

On the third week Jennifer decided to invite Logan and his mother to try to get Kendall to open up to him or at least play. While the young brunette was with Kendall she talked with Joanne about the blonde's problem and the way he was behaving for the last few weeks.

While the adults were talking Logan was sitting on the edge of Kendall's bed watching his only friend look at the ceiling with a sad expression. "Kendall?"

He didn't respond.

"Kendall."

Nothing.

Logan grabbed the nearest pillow and hit him squarely on his face. "Kendall!"

"What?" he said as placed the pillow underneath his head.

"Why are you so down?" he asked with a worried tone.

He sighed, "I can't tell you."

"Why? I'm your best friend we tell each other everything."

"Not this time buddy, sorry."

He pouted and crossed his arms, "what was the promise you made?"

"That I wouldn't tell anybody about Ja-," his eyes widened in realization and sat up glaring at the brunette. "Hey!"

"So close," he muttered. "So you met somebody on the beach? Kendall you know we're not supposed to talk to strangers."

"He isn't a stranger, he's my friend."

"So it's a man?"

"Stop doing that!"

He tilted his head to the side, feigning innocence, "doing what?"

"Getting answers from me!"

"I wouldn't, if you tell me," he persisted.

He groaned and buried his face in the pillow, frustrated. "You promise not to tell?"

"Cross my heart and hope to not be a doctor and pinky promise, I won't tell anybody." He crossed his chest and raised his pinky.

Kendall raised his pinky and they shook, he sat up and leaned toward him after looking around his room making sure no one was listening.

"I told James I wasn't going to tell anybody about him because he is afraid of being taken away from the ocean," he explained in a hushed voice.

"Who's James?" he asked, intrigued.

"A mermaid-no merman, I keep getting mixed up on that."

Logan stared at him as if he was speaking an unknown language to him, "you've been watching The Little Mermaid way too many times."

"And that is why I don't want to tell anybody," he said pointing at him. "You look at me as if I'm crazy."

"I'm starting to think to."

Kendall looked out his window with a sad expression, "now he's gone and he won't come back until next summer. I don't know if I can make it that long, I miss him so much." Tears started to come out of his eyes making Logan gaze at him with a concerned expression.

"Hey it's okay," he said placing a hand on his shoulder. Kendall wiped his cheeks and sniffled before turning to him. "Remember when my grandpa died?"

The blonde nodded, "yeah you were crying a lot and didn't come out of your room for a long time, I had to literally drag you out to play Operation."

"I was, but I wasn't anymore when my mom talked to me about-,"

"Logan I can't tell anybody about him."

"Let me finish," he insisted making his friend close his mouth. "mom told me that it's okay to be sad, but you have to remember the good times you had with the person you're missing so the sad stuff goes away and you just think about the good ones."

He said trying to get his message across to him, "and you have something to be excited about next summer you just have to wait. I think James doesn't want you to be sad for him, there was a…reason," he smiled at himself for his choice of vocabulary, "that he left."

The blonde nodded, "yeah I guess you're right."

"I always am," he beamed.

Kendall threw the pillow at him hitting his face. The blonde sighed and lied back on his bed, "but I still feel sad."

Logan placed the pillow aside and lied next to him. "It's okay to be sad, just remember all the good times and you'll feel better…hopefully," he muttered the last part to himself.

The blonde turned to the window again. Logan placed a hand on his chin thinking of a way to cheer his friend up, he remembered what mama Knight said about him not eating or playing making her worry about him. "I'm hungry," he said as a thought came to his head and he sat up. "Let's eat something."

Kendall felt his stomach growl at the thought of food; he hadn't really eaten well since James left. Now that he was thinking about it he hadn't really been himself for the last few weeks, he faintly remembered his mom being sad and worried and a sharp pain in his stomach. He sat up and looked at Logan, the brunette grinned when he saw the familiar look on his face when he had an idea. "When we're done we could play outside. War Hero or Extreme Hide and Seek?"

Logan sat up and grinned. "I'll play the doctor in the game."

"You always do."

"I have the band aids," he said with a knowing smile.

He groaned and crossed his arms, "you had to bring that up, I slipped, I could have shot the target if the ground wasn't so muddy."

"Sure you did," he said with a chuckle as he walked toward the door and dodged the pillow Kendall threw at him.

They both went down the stairs and saw their moms talking with one another. "Mom," Kendall called out to her.

They both looked up, Jennifer nearly cried in happiness and in shock when he saw the light in his green eyes again. They were a little dim, but she could see the spark in them.

"Could you make us something to eat?" he asked. She immediately got up and walked toward the kitchen.

"Sure, what do you want?"

Jennifer watched at her son relieved that he finished all of his meal and ran outside with Logan playing whatever game they had in their young minds.

"You look like you won a million dollars, Jen." Joanne said as they both watched their sons run in the backyard as they sat in the lawn chairs she grabbed earlier after their sons finished eating their snack.

She beamed when she saw her son smile again. It's been so long, since she saw the light in his eyes. "No, I got something even better."

* * *

**In my opinion, this chapter was really not good, but this came out instead. I hope you like it and thank you for reviewing, I enjoy your opinions on my stories, and to those who alerted, and favorited this story. Working on the next chpater right now, maybe I'll post it up in a few days...I hope.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter 6: Welcome to the Family**

Kendall and Logan started their new school year with ease, for the first week they had no homework and started to get used to their third grade class. Jennifer and Francis was thankful that Kendall got over his depression before school started, slowly everything started to go back to normal with the exception that Kendall won't go to the beach and would sometimes cry in his sleep.

Unknown to both parents, Kendall kept a calendar Logan gave him and started to count down the days to next summer. The last three months of the year flew by, as the blonde celebrated the holidays with his friends and family and was ecstatic when he reached the New Year as he was only months away to seeing James again. He also spent majority of his time with his mom when he started to notice her belly growing, he would ask whether it was a boy or a girl, when he or she will come out and how it would be like in the house to have a baby. The blonde tried to ask his parents where babies come from and how it would get out of his mom's belly, his answer would always be 'you're too young to know', 'you'll find out when you're older', or they will either change the topic making him even more curious.

After a few weeks of trying to get answers from his parents, he decided to ask Logan. After nearly two hours of asking questions and listening to Logan's explanation of where babies came from, he decided to wait when he was older, much to his discontent.

During the second week of March, Kendall woke up to the sound of mother screaming, he quickly ran to her as fast as his small legs can carry and saw his dad helping her up and walk to the door. He helped his dad open the door wider for them to go through; his mom gave her son a small smile before she scrunched her face in pain. Kendall did the same thing helping his dad open the front and passenger side car door.

He watched his dad run to the house and talking to something in his hand most likely his cell phone. Kendall went inside the car and took his mom's hand, "mom are you gonna be okay?"

He knew it was a stupid question to ask, it was obvious that her mom was in pain, but he didn't really know what to do in this situation, but offer her comfort.

Despite the pain she was going through, she smiled at him and gently squeezed his hand, "I'll be fine, the baby is coming."

His eyes widened at the news, "I thought it won't come out till next month."

"Me too," she said gripping the handle bar of the car tightly so she won't hurt her son. "Guess the baby wants to come out now."

Before he could open his mouth to speak, he felt he was being pushed back to his seat and something strapping across his chest, "seatbelt, Kendall." His dad said after making sure he was secured in his seat, he got to the wheel and quickly started the car.

In less than five minutes, the car stopped and his dad quickly got out of the car and grabbed his son. The blonde recognized he was at Logan's house and saw his friend's mom standing in front of the door, when his dad reached her he placed Kendall on the ground and gently pushed him inside. He saw Logan in his blue pajama and immediately walked over to him; his friend was trying to keep his eyes open not used to waking up suddenly in the middle of the night.

"Hey Kendall," he greeted with a lazy wave. "What's up?"

"The baby is coming," he said as he saw Logan's dad going to his car.

His eyes suddenly widened and his lips parted in surprise, "really?"a

He nodded. "I thought the baby won't come until next month."

"Me too."

"Don't worry Francis I'll take care of Kendall," she reassured him. The minute Francis called her in the middle of the night; she immediately knew it had to do with Jennifer's new child. She quickly woke up her husband and told him to get dressed and go to the Knight's house to get Jennifer's suitcase. He didn't need to be told that it was time and did what he was told, when she hang up she saw her son covering his mouth from a yawn, probably woke up from the commotion they were making. She got up and grabbed his hand taking him downstairs and telling him that Kendall was coming for a sleepover. Before the young brunette was able to ask why, she heard the car outside and quickly opened the door to see a frantic Francis holding his son, when Kendall went inside she turned to him and spoke. "Just get Jen to the hospital as fast as possible. John will call you when he gets there so you could pick up your things. I'll come by tomorrow to see how she is doing."

He nodded and said a quick goodbye and thanks before he ran back to his car to take his wife to the hospital.

She closed the door and turned to the two boys that were currently talking in hushed voices. "Alright boys," she said getting their attention. "It's late and we got a big day tomorrow let's all go back to bed."

She took the children to Logan's room and took out two sleeping bags from Logan's closet and placed them next to each other on the floor. She gave them each a kiss on their foreheads and told them goodnight after they were situated in their sleeping bags. After closing the door she went back downstairs and waited in the living room for her husband to come home, she was grateful it was a weekend to catch an extra hour of sleep.

* * *

For the next few days, Kendall had to stay at Logan's house while his parents were at the hospital. Logan explained to him, that a baby should come at about nine months, but since he or she came out a month early the doctors had to make sure the baby and his mom were alright.

It was one of these days when he wished he was with James, he imagined that they would have splashed each other with water and make sand castles, while talking about his day. He closed his eyes imaging being in his arms feeling his entire body being safe and warm in his hold, he didn't realize he was crying when he realized he was being held by Logan's mom and told him that everything was going to be alright.

By the end of the week, Kendall was taken to the hospital to see his mom. He was busy making a drawing of him and James near the beach when he got called up to his teacher. He was surprised he was picked up early by his dad and saw Logan looking worried before his dad took him away from school heading to a large white building with a red cross, the same cross on the first aid kit. Luckily the blonde was able to take his drawing and folded it placing it in his pocket before he left school. Normally his parents didn't pick him up early unless he had a dentist or a doctor appointment or he wasn't feeling well; however Francis made this an exception and picked up and to take him to the hospital to see his mom.

He got his visitor's pass and held his dad's hand the entire way as he was taken to the elevator and through many hallways before he stood in front of a room. When his dad opened the door the first thing he saw was his mom sitting up on her bed, "Kendall!" she said with a large smile and opened arms.

"Mom," he ran to the bed and got on the chair next to the bed giving her a large and gentle hug. "How do you feel?"

She ruffled his hair, "I'm good and you?"

"Fine," he looked around the room, but only saw his dad and some stuff that Logan talked about when he was talking about doctors used to check how you're body was doing. "Where's the baby?"

"The doctors are looking after her," she explained.

He tilted his head to the side, curious. "Her?"

She nodded, "yes her, Kendall you have a baby sister."

"Really?" he smiled and leaned forward eager to know more about her. "What's her name?"

"I was wondering if you could help me name her?"

He nodded eagerly.

"I was thinking about Rebecca, but your father thinks we should name her Leslie, what do you think?"

"Hmm?" Jennifer chuckled when her son placed a hand on his chin and sat on the chair in a thinking pose. After a moment of silence he turned to her with a sparkle in his eyes making his eye color glow brighter, she loved so much, "Katie."

"Katie?" she repeated. "Where did you get that one?"

He shrugged, "don't know it came to me."

"Katie Knight," she said with a smile. "Sounds perfect, what do you think honey?"

He nodded in agreement, "sounds pretty good, Katie, I could live with that."

"Then it's settled." She looked down at her son, "your baby sister's name is Katie."

"When can I see her?" he asked, excited to see his new sister.

"Right now, but you have to be quiet okay?"

He nodded, Francis took his hand and they left the room, when they reached a glass window, Kendall could hear faint crying and doctors talking with one another. Francis picked up his son and held him in front of the glass window, "you see the babies in the last row?" he asked in a hushed voice.

The blonde leaned forward a bit and nodded, "next to the sleeping baby with a blue band on his wrist, there's Katie with a pink band on her wrist."

"That one," he tapped the glass, pointing at her. He nodded.

"Yup."

Kendall watched her sister inside, she was really small and red and a bit chubby, she seemed like she was in a glass box with a lot of wires on her legs and arms. She wasn't crying like the other babies inside, but didn't seem to be asleep either. He smiled when he saw her move, "hey Katie."

He gasped when he saw her move her arm, "dad it looked like she said hello."

He chuckled at his naivety. They stood there for a few minutes watching the baby inside, "dad?"

"Yeah?"

"When can Katie and mama come home?" he asked, not removing his gaze from her.

He shrugged, "I don't really know the doctor has to make sure both your mom and Katie are okay before they can come home, might be another week for Katie. But she's a Knight she's strong and brave like you and your mother."

He grinned.

Francis placed his son back on the ground and grabbed his hand again, "let's go back to your mom's room; I'm sure you two have a lot of catching up to do."

Kendall got on his toes and waved to Katie, "see you later baby sister." He grinned when he saw her move her arm again, waving at him before he left.

* * *

"She is so small," Kendall said as he was sitting on Logan's bed talking to his best friend.

After two hours of being with his mom, Francis took Kendall back to the first floor, signing out and dropping him off at the Mitchell's home. The minute he saw Logan, they both went up to his room and talked about his time at the hospital.

Logan made a few comments about what doctors do with babies and then helped him a bit with his homework, and by help it meant that Logan had to do it for him since the blonde had no idea what he was doing. They ate dinner and played a little before they went to bed, tonight was one of those nights where he couldn't sleep and he quietly got out of his sleeping bag and made his way toward the bathroom. He also took the drawing he made and sat on the closed toilet looking out the window toward the direction of the ocean, "I wish you were here James; I would have told you all about my new baby sister, her name is Katie and she is so small. When she gets bigger, mama says we can be able to go to the beach and hang out together."

He looked down at his drawing, "only a few more months James and we can soon play together."

The blonde yawned and gave a final glance at the window before he left the bathroom and walked toward Logan's room. Carefully tip toeing around Logan, he quietly went back to his sleeping bag and folded his drawing placing it under his pillow. "Goodnight James." Kendall mumbled before he closed his eyes and fell asleep.

* * *

**Wow I got so many reviews from the last chapter. Good thing it's Spring Break gives me a lot of time to write. Thank you and I hope you enjoyed this chapter. **

**Author's note: For more info on this story check out my profile, your questions will be answered there, if you have any.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter 7: Reunion Part 1**

By the end of the month, both Mrs. Knight and Katie were released from the hospital and on their way home. Kendall waited at his home with Logan and his mom for the new Knight, the minute the door opened Kendall and Logan jumped and ran to the living room to see Francis holding a baby carrier.

"Welcome back," Joanne hugged her best friend when she stepped through the door.

"Good to be back home," she said returning it. She closed the door and took the baby from the carrier and sat on the sofa. Kendall and Logan sat next to her and peered at the sleeping baby in her arms.

"She is small," Logan said.

"Told you so, mom can I touch her hand?" the blonde asked.

"Go ahead, but gently," slowly Kendall stretched his hand toward hers and let out a surprised gasp when she suddenly grabbed his finger in her small palm.

"Nice to meet you too, Katie," he made a small shake, causing her to grasp his finger tighter.

"Is that her name?" Logan asked.

Mrs. Knight nodded, "yeah, Katie Knight."

"That's pretty," he commented.

"Mama she won't let go," Kendall said as he tried to pull back.

The brunette chuckled, "she likes you."

Both mothers awed at the same time, Jennifer gently grabbed Katie's fingers releasing Kendall's digit. She stood up and started to walk up the stairs, "I'll put her in her crib and then we could eat dinner, who wants pizza?"

"Me!" both boys yelled at the same time.

* * *

For the next few months Kendall began his role of being a big brother and watched over Katie when he was with his mom at the grocery store or helping her push the stroller when they are at the park and sometimes help his mom clean her up after she finished eating. Even Logan got into the role when he was at his house looking after Katie making sure she was healthy and eating the right nutrients. The blonde kept his drawing of James next to his calendar as he crossed out each day as he was close to summer.

"Kendall have you seen your father?" his mom asked one day while he was watching Cars.

He paused the movie and turned to her, "he said something about working late."

She frowned, "that's the third time this week; he promised he was going to help me organize Katie's room."

"I'll help," she gave him a thankful smile.

Kendall had been noticing that his parents were starting to argue a lot especially when his dad got a promotion and began to work late at night. At first his mom didn't mind since they needed the money for Katie, but after not coming home for days she began to grow uneasy.

Kendall didn't really pay attention to his surroundings until one night he woke up to his parents arguments and went to his parent's room where Katie was sleeping and made sure the loud noise didn't wake her. He thought it was a one-time thing that they would forgive each other, and everything will go back to normal like before. However that wasn't the case when he had to wake in the middle of the night and sit next to Katie's crib as his parents had another fight. The blonde would sometimes open her music box and sing along to get her back to sleep when she woke up crying.

Their fights continued for the next two months, the two Knights would fight, not speak with each other at all or sleep in different areas in the house, Jennifer would sleep on her bed close to Katie's crib while Francis slept wither in the living room couch or in Kendall's room. Logan got worried when Kendall would sometimes sleep during class getting in trouble. The blonde refused to sleep over claiming that he had to watch over Katie when their parents were arguing. Joanne would come over and talk to Jennifer and watch over Katie and Kendall when their mother found out his son had not been sleeping well.

When he isn't at work Francis would spend most of his time with Kendall, the blonde was happy that he was spending time with his father, but he grew concerned about his mom and his baby sister.

"Dad," he said when they were in the kitchen eating ice cream. They just came home from spending time in the ice rink, now that Francis had a lot of time on his hands, he had been teaching Kendall how to skate on the ice.

"Yeah?"

"When are you and mama gonna stop fighting?"

He sighed, "listen your mom and I are having trouble agreeing on some things, but this will be over soon I promise."

Satisfied with the answer he continued eating his ice cream.

He had been noticing his dad sometimes going through his room looking for something, but whenever he asked he would just say he was organizing. He would also ask him questions about the pearl again. Kendall answered every one of them making sure to leave out James, he also noticed his dad going through his mom's stuff and thought it was because he was looking for something mom asked, oblivious to Francis's true intentions.

"Have you seen your mother's box?" he asked when they were in the backyard. They were currently playing catch and Kendall caught the ball in his glove.

"The one Logan's mom got for her birthday?" he asked throwing the baseball to him.

He nodded, that one."

His son shrugged, "I don't know, I think she moved it when's she was moving everything for Katie's room."

"Have you seen her bracelet, the one with the key for the box?"

The blonde shook his head, "no."

Things in the Knight's household began to calm down, much to the blonde's content, his parents still wouldn't speak with one another and the nights started to be quiet again, making Kendall actually getting full nights of sleep.

The blonde was ecstatic when he hit June, the last month of school and the beginning of summer. He began to go to the beach whenever he came out of school and stay there for an hour or two waiting for James. His parents already knew that their son was already looking forward to seeing the dolphin again and let him go the beach for only a short amount of time, but they also had to be cautious on his behavior in case he goes through another depression.

The first time he arrived at the beach he stared at the view before him, not much changed since he came last summer. He walked to his usual spot near the rocks to the small pool; it was still the same, the water moved a bit as the waves crashed into the shore. He remembered hiding behind these rocks while playing hide and seek with the merman and splashing each other with water, having the time of his life, it seemed like such a long time ago.

The blonde got on top of the rocks and sat on his usual seat and waited. He waited and waited and waited, for nearly two weeks he had been waiting for the merman to come, until school was over for summer vacation ending his third grade year. Logan would ask if he had seen the merman, but his answer was always a no, the brunette gave him space knowing that it was important for Kendall to see him again and would pay extra attention to him in case he got disappointed. There was a part of his mind that said James wasn't real, but by the way Kendall kept talking about him like a real person it was a lot difficult not to believe him unless he saw him with his own two eyes. The blonde would go to the beach in the morning and stay until the afternoon before he had to leave and go back home. Sometimes he would scavenge the beach and look for small shells for Katie, he would find different assortments of shells of different color and take each one to her and place it in a small box his mom bought for her.

He never complained or grew impatient; never worried if he wouldn't come, he knew James would keep his promise, he knew he would come. So he waited, by the third week of June all of his patience paid off when he saw a familiar white tail in the ocean and smiled.

James finally came.

* * *

**I'm sorry this is short, I could have done better, but this came out instead and I'm glad you guys really like this story and hope you enjoyed this chapter. Also I need a bit of help. Let this be a clue for what's to come in the next chapter. **

**What color should Carlos's tail be?**

**I have trouble choosing, so could you help?**

**I would appreciate your ideas. Review Please!**


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter 8: A Fishy Tale**

"James! Get your fucking tail out here! You've been in that cave for more than five moons; it's time you get some open space!"

The merman groaned and turned away from his friend's yelling, "could you just leave me alone and let me be sad in peace?"

"No."

James looked over his shoulder. He saw his only and best friend Carlos, with his arms crossed over his chest and an annoyed expression on his face. He was sitting on a rock with his purple tail stretched in front of him next to the flat surface covered in soft cushioned seaweed James was lying on.

Ever since James left Kendall he had been miserable, he would spend all of his time imagining or dreaming in his sleep having the blonde in his arms again, making him laugh and smile, by hiding behind the stones at the beach and play in their pool. He was currently in an underwater cave in Hawaii waiting for the water temperature to change in the west coast of North America so he could go back to Kendall.

"You have to stop thinking about the human child and live your life," Carlos said, trying to get his friend out of the cave, again.

"Kendall is part of my life."

Carlos was shocked when James told him he met a human child, after he noticed his friend being depressed and never leaving the cave he resided in. After freaking out and lecturing James about human contact, he tried to convince his friend to come out and enjoy the ocean along with other merpeople in the area. But James refused; instead he was inside the cave and will sometimes come out for a swim in the middle of the night and go to a small pool he found while he was near the shore. It wasn't the same as the pool back in Kendall's beach, but it would suffice when he felt he needed to be close to the blonde, emotionally.

His friend tried everything from tempting him to going out with attractive female and male merpeople to threatening to break his favorite black shell comb. Carlos was surprised that threatening his most important possession in his life, he didn't get a reaction from James, he would only sigh and have a faraway expression on his face.

After being friends with James for more than four hundred years he was astonished to see the brunette to acting this way. James tended to be with many people for the fun of it and never been with anyone on an emotional level only was in relationships only for the physical pleasure. He made sure to get out of every relationship before it got too serious not wanting to indulge deeper into it reaching his heart. Ever since the incident with his family a long time ago he became a loner, only watching out for himself and Carlos's well being.

However ever since he met the human he's completely changed, on the first two weeks they arrived to Hawaii, James would not stop talking about the blonde, how his amazing his smile was, his life, and James's favorite, his eyes. Carlos never heard James talk so deeply about someone he liked, almost as if he loved him, he grew concerned when he spent most of his time in the cave and never ate the food he brought for him.

"You know I don't think he would have wanted this," he said thoughtfully, trying another attempt to reach his depressed friend. He saw his friend's confused and curious expression from the corner of his eye.

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it," he turned to him. "What would Kendall say if he saw you being sad and gloomy right at this very moment?"

This brought the memory of the last day he was with the blonde, when he found out that James had to go away to warmer waters, leaving him. He already knew the answer to Carlos's question, for the first time in months he smiled, "he would say I'm an idiot, that I shouldn't be sad because then he'll be sad, that I'm like this."

He sighed and laid back on his back, "I miss him so much."

"I'm sure he misses you too," Carlos said, controlling his need to rush through things and get James back to his usual self. "I'm also pretty sure he will be waiting for you on the pool, beach, or rock, next summer solstice."

With both hands, he rubbed his face and sighed again, for the final time. "You're right I shouldn't be acting like this. I don't want Kendall to be upset with me even if he never knows about this I don't want to disappoint him. I'm still keeping our promise."

Carlos smiled while James rubbed his pinky and sat up; with Carlos he left the cave for a bite to eat.

Months passed by quickly, much to James's content. He kept himself busy by going to different caves and meeting other people of his kind socializing a bit and going around the other islands of Hawaii. The merman thought Kendall will be waiting for him with stories of his time here and tell him about both life on land on underwater. James kept track of time by collecting small shells of different colors and placed them in his cave. He would count the days by the number of suns marking every twenty four hours on a flat stone he found on the ocean floor. Whenever a month passed he would remove one shell and place it in a net from a ripped abandoned net used to catch small fish and used it as a bag, he found swimming near the shore.

When he felt suddenly depressed about missing the human blonde he would think about the fun and happy moments they had together bringing a smile to his face and remember that every day and month that passes by will bring him closer to having him in his arms again.

The day when he placed the last shell in his small net, he swam out of the cave and spent a few hours with Carlos, before he began his long journey back to his old home, to Kendall.

It took him a week to reach Hawaii, since he purposely swam slow to pass the time wishing for it to be summer so he could turn back around and go back to the blonde. But due to his excitement and impatience, he swam in more than five hundred miles per hour making him able to reach his home in less than three days. Unfortunately due to the amount of power he used to get him back to the west coast of North America, he was drained of energy and had to rest for two days to get some of his strength back to be able to move and swim to the pool.

He grinned when he saw a familiar figure sitting on a large stone and quickly went underwater, making sure he raised his tailfin hoping the blonde saw it and quickly went to the rocks near the shore heading toward the pool, to Kendall.

* * *

**I know it's short and thank you for the reviews, I'm almost reaching 50, I'm so happy! anyway I'm already working on the next chapter hopefully I'll be able to update tomorrow or on Monday. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter 9: Reunion Part 2**

After going through the familiar cracks through the stones, he reached the same pool, where he dropped off Kendall for his parents to find and where he always met the blonde every hour in the morning last year.

He smiled when he saw the blonde with his rags and black slippers; before he could open his mouth to speak he was suddenly falling backwards and splashed into the water with the human blonde on his chest.

* * *

The minute Kendall saw James's white tail, he jumped off the rock he was sitting on and ran to the pool, time seemed to freeze when he spotted the merman with a smile on his face showing his white teeth. He still looked the same as he did last summer when he last spent time with him, without another thought he ran and wrapped his small arms around his neck crashing into him. The blonde didn't notice he got majority of his clothes wet and will most likely get in trouble for doing so, but he didn't care, he just cared that he was back with James and hugging him again.

The merman instantly wrapped his arms around him and sighed in total bliss at being reunited with the human child again. He felt him shake underneath his arms and looked down to see Kendall crying, concerned he tried to pull him back to face him, but he wouldn't let go only tightened his hold on him. "What's wrong Kendall?"

"N-nothing, I-I just m-missed you so-o m-much James," The merman let out a small smile; the blonde was crying tears of joy at being with him again. Without removing the human child from his chest he sat up and lied back against a stone and held the blonde close while he placed his cheek on top of his head.

"I missed you too, Kendall." He said letting out a tear of his own, "I missed you so much, but I'm here now, we're together again, and that's what matters the most."

Kendall pulled back and comforted himself on his lap; still in James's arms he looked up and smiled, wiping his cheeks, "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have cried."

He smiled again, "it's okay Kendall." Raising his hand he wiped his cheek when another tear fell, wanting to change the subject he gave him a curious expression and poked his cheek, making the blonde giggle. "You seem bigger? Did you grow?"

Kendall beamed and nodded, "yup, I'm nine; I'm a big boy now."

He raised a brow and smirked as he raised his hands and wiggled his fingers, Kendall recognized his look and before he could get away he began to laugh when the merman began to tickle his abdomen. "S-stop; ah! Stop it J-James ha ha ha s-stop."

The merman continued for a few more minutes until he stopped letting Kendall breathe, he gave him a small playful glare, "that was mean."

He laughed, "let me make it up to you, I brought you a present."

Kendall leaned forward intrigued, "what is it?"

James covered his eyes and took out the net full of shells he had behind his back. He held it in front of him and moved his hand away to show the blonde his gift. Kendall took it in his arms and placed it on his lap, "wow I've never seen these types of shells before."

"That's because they're from Hawaii."

The blonde turned to him with wide eyes, "you went to Hawaii?"

He nodded. "What's it like?"

The merman smiled as he leaned forward in anticipation, "it rained a lot, it's beautiful the water is a lot clearer you can see the school of fish swimming everywhere, a lot of sunshine and warmth and a lot of sea animals to play with too."

"Wow, it must have been amazing." The blonde said and looked down at the shells on his lap, "I bet Katie will love these."

"Who's Katie?" he asked with a curious and slightly angry tone.

He smiled, "my baby sister."

"Oh! The baby, I remember you talked about it-her many times," he felt relieved it was his new sibling; he thought it was someone else close to the blonde.

"Yup, she and mama had to stay at the hospital because she was born early, but they are okay now, Katie's three months old," he said raising three fingers.

"What's a hospital?"

"A place where sick people go to if they feel bad, a lot of doctors work there, I don't really like it there they give me shots and they hurt a lot," he rubbed his arm with a slight wince. "Oh! I almost forgot I have a present for you too!"

He tilted his head a bit, "oh?"

"Close your eyes," the merman did as he was told and closed them; he felt Kendall move slightly and heard a small rip.

The blonde took out a medium size wrapper and ripped it open revealing a cookie inside; he placed the wrapper back in his pocket and held it front of James, "okay you can open them now."

James opened his eyes to see a light brown object in his hand with dark brown spots on it, "remember the cookie I gave you in the cave when we first met, you liked it so much I thought to bring one for you when you came back."

He remembered and took the cookie and bit it, he moaned at the taste and how it melted in his mouth smoothly going down his throat when he swallowed, "this is so good."

Kendall laughed, "mama has to hide them from me sometimes because I eat a lot of cookies."

"What are the spots?"

"That's chocolate," he explained. "It's candy."

He took another bite, "your candy is a lot different from mine, they're salty, but they're really good."

Kendall smiled when the merman finished the rest, he picked the shells off his lap and placed them inside the bag and put it inside his pocket.

James heard faint splashing in the distance making an idea pop into his mind when he recognized it and smiled at the blonde. "Do you want to come with me to the ocean real quick for a swim?"

"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes! I would love to, just give me a second." Kendall got off James's lap and went into the sand discarding his sandals, his shorts, and shirt leaving him in his Spiderman boxers and went back to James. The merman picked up the blonde bridal style and went through the cracks and openings again toward the ocean. The water was warm when they were at a long distance from the shore; James placed him in the water making sure to have an arm around his waist having his back against his chest so he could have a good grip on the human child.

"Look at the water Kendall," the blonde did as he was told and gasped when he saw dolphins swimming by, his jaw dropped in awe when one came up to them. The blonde saw dolphins many times on tv and once at the aquarium when they weren't fighting and took Katie for a family trip along with Logan.

The dolphin's beak gently touched his arm, making him smile; slowly the blonde raised his hand and rubbed its head, "hi."

The dolphin opened its mouth releasing a high squeaky noise, "he says hi," James said surprising the blonde.

"You can speak dolphin?" he nodded.

"I can talk to most of the sea creatures including dolphins."

The dolphin squeaked again, "he says it a pleasure to meet you."

"Nice to meet you too," he said rubbing his head again.

The dolphin squeaked making James frown and move away from him, but the dolphin followed him. "What's the matter James?" he asked noticing his angry expression.

"He wants you to ride him."

"Can I?" he asked with an excited tone.

"No."

"Why?" Kendall pouted.

"Because it's not safe."

The dolphin made a few more squeaking noises, "what'd he say?" the blonde asked.

"Hmm," he gave a concerned glance at the blonde before he turned back to the dolphin, "are you sure?"

The dolphin nodded.

"You better be," he turned back to the blonde. "You can ride him."

"Really?!" James had to wrap his other arm around him when the blonde nearly jumped out if his arm in excitement.

"Yes, I'll be watching you and he'll swim slowly so you won't slip."

"Okay."

James turned the dolphin and nodded at him. The mammal moved toward them and went underwater leaving his fin on the surface. James grabbed the blonde's arms and moved him toward the dolphin; he placed his arm around the fin and the other on the edge.

"Make sure you have a tight grip, but not too tight so you won't hurt him, okay?"

He nodded, "got it."

The minute James moved away from him, the dolphin started to move forward and as promised he moved slowly. Kendall moved his legs along with the dolphin and looked over his shoulder to see James following close behind and smiled at him. James grinned at his happy expression; they continued swimming for half an hour before the merman suddenly grabbed the blonde from behind surprising him.

"Time's up."

The dolphin turned around and gently touched Kendall's arm again with his beak again. "It was fun swimming with you," the blonde said rubbing his head.

The dolphin squeaked, "he says it was he had great time too."

The dolphin nodded.

"Time to go back to the pool," James said making sure he had a good grip on the blonde before he started to swim.

"Bye," Kendall waved at the dolphin over the merman's shoulder.

He grinned when the dolphin laid on its side waving its fin at him.

"This was the best day ever James," he said turning to the merman.

He smiled, "I'm glad you had fun."

"I hope there will be more days like this with you." The blonde yawned and laid his head on his chest, when they reached the rocks James picked him up again bridal style and went through the cracks reaching the pool.

He heard soft breathing and looked down to see the blonde with his eyes closed sleeping soundly on his chest. James comforted himself lying back on the same rock he was against earlier and looked down at Kendall with a loving smile on his face as he began to gently comb his hair with his fingers.

James didn't know how long he had been with the blonde; he didn't bother looking at the position of the sun until he heard faint footsteps and Kendall's name in the air close by. Looking up the sky he noticed that instead of its regular light blue hue it was light orange with hints of yellow, pink, and purple and turned to see the sun nearly set on the horizon. Turning back to the blonde he sighed before he moved and placed him on his rags he had on earlier, he gave him a kiss on his forehead. "Sweet dreams Kendall."

He turned around and quickly left the pool hiding behind a large stone, he peeked to see the blonde's familiar parents talk to each other before Kendall's father picked him up and his mother picked up his rags.

Slowly, the merman left toward the ocean and watched them take Kendall for the night, before he went underwater going back to his own home.

* * *

"Judging by his wet hair and skin, he must have met the dolphin today," Jennifer said as he saw his son sleeping on top of his clothes.

"Déjà vu," Francis said as he picked up his son and began his walk toward the house; Jennifer picked up his clothes and followed her husband to their house.

When they arrived they both went upstairs and into his room, after Francis placed his son on his bed he left the room while Jennifer changed him to a clean pair of red boxers and placed his dirty clothes in the hamper close to his door. She furrowed her brows in curiosity when she heard a soft noise and picked his pockets, she was surprised to find a small bag of shells and an empty chocolate chip cookie wrapper. She sighed when she glanced at her sleeping son, "I'm going to have to find another hiding spot again."

She placed the bag of shells on his small desk and threw away the wrapper before she threw away the wet shorts in the hamper. Placing the blanket over Kendall, she pecked his cheek before she left his room closing the door behind her making a mental note to have the blonde have a bath first thing in the morning. Jennifer wasn't surprised Kendall had a faint scent of fish on his skin.

* * *

**I have been meaning to write this chapter and it is finally done. Unfortunately I have to leave a sad Author's Note: Now that Spring Break is nearly over I will be going back to updating a chapter every week or two weeks, however it will probably be longer becuase I am preparing myself to go to a university and will be busy with studying for important tests. Yes, I am a nerd. Anyway I will still be writing and I will not give up on any of my stories. I have a lot of fun writing them so I will make time (learn how to do time management) for them. Wow this is long.**

**I hope you like this chapter and I reached 50 reviews. I AM SO HAPPY!...thank you!**


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter 10: Trouble in Paradise Part 1**

For the next several weeks Kendall and James met at the pool at the same time they did last summer, for an hour they would talk about what they did during fall, winter, and spring, making sure they kept the subject of their depression away from each other.

The merman talked about Hawaii and his time there, meeting other merpeople and telling the stories they told him, the appropriate ones, to Kendall amazing him and answering all of his questions he had about his world as best as he could. He was especially amazed when he mentioned a ceremony that had to do with fire being thrown in the air by humans he saw near the beach.

Kendall will talk about the holidays he enjoyed such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's Day, Easter, and more. He will also talk about his friend Logan not noticing the merman's slightly angry tone and multiple questions about him, and fortunately didn't have feeling for, much to James's content. The blonde also mentioned his sister a lot how small she is and how she will have a tight grip on his fingers. James laughed when he told him the time when Katie had a tight grip on his finger and wasn't able to get it back until his mom was able to help him after being in the bathroom for nearly an hour being in the bathroom taking a shower.

What caught the merman's attention the most was when the blonde told them about his parent's fights and arguments; that began a month after Katie was born. He grew concerned and angry when he mentioned his father asking him about the pearl and staying at his work for days, the blonde was oblivious to it all, oblivious to his father's true actions.

* * *

Kendall was on his way home from his hour with James when he heard a few voices a few feet away, curious he walked toward it and was surprised to see his dad and a woman he had never seen before sitting on a red and white checkered blanket on the ground with a basket filled with food. He quickly hid behind the tree and watched his dad smiling and talking with the woman who was also smiling, his brows furrowed in confusion when he saw his dad kiss the woman.

Wanting to know what they were doing, he went to the next tree making sure he didn't make any noise and hid behind bushes until he was only six feet away from them.

"Do you think Kendall will like me?" the woman asked. She had black hair, with blue eyes, and tan skin, with a white blouse with dray shorts and brown sandals.

He smiled at her, "I'm sure he will love you, once he gets to know you like I do."

"And Katie?"

"She's a baby, she'll grow to think you're her mother," he poured her more soda into her cup.

She gave him a smile, "I always wanted to have children."

"You'll get your wish soon and a dream house too once I find the pearl." He explained, "then we'll move and find new jobs and live a perfect life."

"What about Jennifer?"

"She can still see the kids."

"That's not what I-,"

_Snap!_

"What was that?" she asked and looked toward Kendall's direction, fortunately the blonde was able to hide before she could see him.

Francis shrugged, "probably a squirrel."

Kendall waited until they started talking again she he could get away. A few minutes later he began to walk back to the trail leading to his home, watching his step so he won't step on another twig. He hid behind the trees whenever he was in their line of vision and peeked to see whenever they are distracted with each other he would move to his next hiding spot. He made it to his home and through the back door, immediately, went inside and to the kitchen to see his mother put something in the oven, most likely their dinner.

"Mom," he called out catching her attention.

"What is it, honey?"

"Why is dad kissing and hanging around with a lady?"

* * *

James went back to his cave with a smile on his face, ever since he returned from his Hawaiian vacation and spent time with Kendall, he had never felt so alive. He cherished the moments he had with the blonde making him smile and laugh making his heart warm at how his green eyes glow with happiness. At the thought of leaving Kendall again, there was no question that he wouldn't be able to be apart from the blonde, physically, but on an emotional and spiritual level he had a chance to never be separated from him again.

Before he could think any further on the idea, he sensed a presence and swam to the entrance of his cave and was surprised to see Carlos a few feet away from the entrance.

His latino friend had a serious and concerned expression on his features. James frowned at him sensing his uneasiness and raised his hand removing his safety shield allowing him to enter his abode.

"What's wrong? You seem troubled?" he asked.

He saw his friend's hands clench into a fist before he spoke. "Jett is taking over."

James felt his blood run cold and every hair on his body stand on end. "No, Griffin-,"

"Resigned," he said with an angry tone. "His life energy is near its end, he chose Jett as his successor being next in line to the throne. I'm sorry to say this, but your location has been compromised."

His eyes widened at shock at the news, "how? I placed barriers to know if he."

"He has been harnessing power from different Potentia's and claiming them as his own." He explained, "we're going to relocate into the East coast of South America until he believes you live on land, again."

James felt his chest clench in pain at the news, "Kendall."

"Don't think about him, he might pose as a threat to your safety and he isn't involved in our situation."

"I can't and you know that," he said with a growl. "I rather die than be away from him again."

Carlos's hand glowed, James head was thrown aside and felt his cheek burn making him hiss in pain, the latino eye's dimmed a little, "don't get him involved, he is a child, he hasn't experienced majority of his life. If you truly care about him you will let him go."

"Leave!"

Carlos thinned his lips and they both stared at each other for a moment before he swam toward the entrance of James's cave. "We leave tomorrow at daybreak," James glared at him as he swam away.

James turned and went deeper into his cave; once he reached his sleeping chamber he punched the wall before a tear ran down his cheek.

* * *

**Story Info: As James and Carlos were communicating they were talking to each other through their minds. In future chapters you will see the difference...I hope...if you are still confused please contact me for questions and I'll post your answer on my profile. **

**I hope you liked this chapter. I'll be putting up the next chapter, most likely, next week. Hope you stick around for the next chapter and thank you for the reviwes, I'm glad you like this story. **


	11. Chapter 11

**Chapter 11: Trouble in Paradise Part 2**

Kendall was currently sitting on the staircase listening to his mother yelling and arguing with his father. After the blonde told Jennifer about his father seeing another lady, she quickly went outside to confirm her son's suspicions. Her heart broke the minute she saw him making out with a young woman, a woman she recognized, it was his secretary she met after she dropped of Francis's lunch at his job. With deep breathes she forced herself not to go to him and kick his balls and punch the woman's face till her skin was purple and blue with multiple hints of green and yellow. Holding back her tears, she quickly went back to the house and saw her son in the kitchen waiting for her.

They stared at each other in silence before in a stoic voice his mother spoke, "Kendall I want you to tell me everything you heard from your father when he was with the lady you saw, alright?"

Without questioning Kendall did as he was told and told her he told her everything he heard, his father talking about how Katie will think the lady as her mother and how he will love her once he got to know her, and mentioned the pearl with a new life. Jennifer clenched her fists in anger after his son finished his story and quickly got her phone from her pocket.

With a stern and controlled voice she spoke, "Kendall I want you to grab the jewel box in my room and get Katie's things, you already know what they are, once you have them immediately come down stairs and set them on the couch. I'll tell you what to do next once you're done."

The blonde quickly got off his seat from the dinner table and ran upstairs to complete his tasks.

Once his son was gone Jennifer speed dialed her friend and waited patiently before she heard her friend's voice after three rings. "Hello Joanne, I need a favor, it has to do with my children's safety and my husband having an affair with his secretary."

* * *

Kendall wasn't in a hurry, but something in his gut told him he had to do his job as fast as possible and he did in less than thirty minutes. He grabbed his mom's jewelry box and then went to his sister's room, it still looked new after his parents transformed the guest room into Katie's room, walking toward the closet he pulling out a medium size pink back and began to fill it, he placed some of her clothes, her toys, diapers, binkies, and other necessities a baby needed. Placing the strap on his shoulder he got the jewelry box in his other hand and went downstairs to place them in the couch. He saw his mother placing her phone in her pocket before she walked toward him, "good job, take these and put them in your pocket."

His mother placed three keys in his palm and did as he was told, looking up he noticed he was holding three keys similar to those she gave him. "This key is Katie's room," she explained when she showed him a gold colored key before she lifted a silver key, "this key is for the back door," and finally she lifted a bronze key, "and this is the key to the front door, remember that, alright?"

He nodded, "yes mama."

The door was suddenly opened and Kendall was surprised to see Logan's mother panting before she spoke, "I came soon after you hanged up, F-Y-I, I saw the ba-," she gave a glance to the young blonde, "Francis and the b-word on my way here, he's taking the long way home, but he'll be here in a few."

"Take the stuff on the sofa, I'll get Katie, Kendall come with me," Joanne took the bag and the wooden box she gave her for her birthday before he left the house. The young blonde followed his mother upstairs and into his baby sister's room. He watched her gently pick Katie up from her crib before they both left the room before his mom turned to him, "lock the door and hide."

He turned to his sister in his arms and gave them both a concerned expression, "is Katie gonna be okay?"

Despite her situation, Jennifer smiled; a genuine one when she felt her chest warm at the thought of her son worrying about his sister. She stretched her hand to Kendall for him to take; he grabbed it and felt his mother squeeze his hand, comforting him. "I promise Kendall your sister is going to be alright she's going to be away from the house for only a short while."

"Why?" he asked curious.

"I'm doing this for you and your sister."

He didn't understand her answer, but nodded nonetheless and took the key from his pocket locking the door while his mom went downstairs and gave her daughter to her best friend.

"I'll take care of her," Joanne promised.

"I know you will."

She watched her best friend take her daughter to her car before she closed the door. The minute she closed the front door she heard the back door open and quickly stood in front of the hallway. She crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes when she saw Francis walking out of the kitchen, "you're home early."

"Hey Jen, just came by to pick up a few things." He smiled at her, "how are you?"

"Certainly not making out with your secretary."

Everything went downhill from there.

After Kendall closed Katie's door he heard his dad's voice and decided to sit on the steps of the stairs. Everything was normal until he began to hear yelling from both his mom and dad and bad words that he was not allowed to hear or say. The blonde has heard stories from his classmates of parents fighting with each other causing them to separate and go through a lot of crying and sleepless nights filled with shouts and screams in the dark. He cringed at the thought and was brought back to reality when he heard his parent's footsteps closet toward shim and quickly left his spot and went inside the closet in the hallway.

He had no idea how he heard them over their shouting, but he didn't care when he hid inside and decided to leave the door partially open to see his parents. He swallowed nervously when he saw his father's angry expression; his face was red and bared his teeth in frustration when he stood in front of Katie's door. For a moment he thought if smoke was going to come out of his ears like in the cartoons by the way he was staring at the door and tried to open it. He gasped when he saw him break the door after he kicked it and stepped inside, he heard a horrible scream and some things being thrown and smashed to the wall.

He shrunk further into the closet when he got out of her room and saw him turn and narrow his eyes, "where is she?" he said through clenched teeth.

"Gone," he heard his mom's voice, but was unable to see her.

"At Joanne's?"

"No, that's too predictable."

Kendall watched his father turn his neck and realized he was looking into his room, "where's my son?"

"Not here."

His father growled before he went inside his room, he suddenly saw his mom standing in front of his room her back facing towards him. While they were distracted he quietly left the closet and saw his mom's hands move and realized she was telling him to get away. He reluctantly left and quickly went down the stairs quietly and left through the back door. The blonde quickly ran around the house toward the beach, but froze when he saw the lady from earlier standing in front of his dad's car.

Before he could run away, the lady turned to him and smiled, he felt stuck to the ground when she walked toward him and crouched. "Hello, sweetie, what's your name?"

_Stranger danger! Stranger danger!_ "Uh…I-I have t-to g-go."

Her features softened and she nodded in understanding, "I'm sorry if I scared you, I noticed you left Francis's house and thought you lived there, you don't have to answer if you don't want to, but I'm curious what's your name?"

"Uh…K-Logan!" he said quickly, catching his mistake almost telling her his name.

Her smile widened, "Oh! I heard a lot about you, you're really smart for your age and you're Kendall's best friend."

"Y-yes I am."

She leaned forward a bit before she spoke, "do you know where Kendall is?"

He shook his head, "no, why do you want to know?"

She clasped her hands together and gave him a small smile, "I'm going to take care of him for a while, but I promise he'll come visit you."

"Take care of him?" he said, confused.

She nodded, "yes, I got a text from your father telling me that he is picking up Katie and Kendall to live with us-,"

The blonde couldn't take it anymore when he felt the familiar burning in the corner of his eyes; he ran ignoring the woman calling him to come back. He ran as fast as he could heading to the only place he knew his dad won't bother to look for him, where he felt secured and protected. The blonde ran across the sand and behind the large stones and went inside the pool, he didn't bother to take his shoes or his clothes off when he sat in the water and leaned against a large rock, he brought his knees to his chest and began to cry.

Kendall didn't know how long he stayed like that sobbing until his throat began to sore and waited for the tears to stop falling. He never noticed the sudden ripples in the pool or the sound of splashing water, when he felt a soft touch on his shoulder he turned to see the merman with a concerned gaze. In a rush his tears returned greater than before when he was suddenly in James's arms and buried his face in his chest he continued to sob, his small figure unconsciously curled into the merman's warm and comfortable body, letting his anguish overwhelm feeling safe with the merman.

* * *

**I AM SO SO SO SORRY! I have been really busy, with univeristy stuff and tests, so here you go (Nuria) here is a chapter (that was difficult to write) and I am now working on the next one, hopefully I'll finish it soon. I hope you enjoyed this chapter!**

**P.S. At the last minute I decided to make this two parts so I added part 1 in the last chapter, in case anyone gets confused in the part 2 thing, thank you for reading.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Chapter 12: Goodbye for Now**

James was in his sleeping chambers thinking about the news Carlos told him earlier. He never thought Griffin will give Jett the throne, of all the merpeople he could have chosen he selected the most arrogant and narcissistic merman in the kingdom to rule. This could not have gone well with the council, especially the people, unless it was really Griffin's last request, then that means his life energy is fading away.

Jett will want every type of Potentia's power he could get his hands on, no matter the barrier he has to face. James placed a hand on his chest at the thought, it will only be a matter of time if he ever found him, as much as he hated to admit it, Carlos was right. He had to leave not only for his safety, but for the safety of his best friend and Kendall, if Jett ever found out about the blonde-James shuddered from the thought. He could not imagine what the bastard would do, he could barely deal with Kendall riding a dolphin and they're harmless creatures. He felt his heart sting at the thought of the blonde, how is he going to tell him that he had to leave again after being reunited for only a few weeks. He could barely stand being apart from the blonde for a day, he didn't know how long he had to stay away from Kendall. With Jett it could be months, years or centuries the blonde would already be a man or, James quickly shook his head from the thought. Turning to the stone next to him that served as a bedside table he gazed at the bracelet he was planning to give to the blonde tomorrow.

It was a bracelet he made two weeks after they reunited, it was a small stretchable bracelet made out of a special type of string and ocean stones he enchanted to make them durable on land. He knew he had to leave the blonde when it was near the end of the summer solstice, physically, but with the bracelet not spiritually. The minute the idea came to him he set out to work to make a charm that would work as a glue to bind their souls on a lasting, but temporary bond that would only last for only a short amount of time. James decided to power the bracelet to work for at least ten years before it stopped functioning, long enough for the blonde to love him more than just a friend. He never thought he had to leave so soon and for a long period of time, he sighed and felt his heart crack, he had to go to the surface and find a way to contact Kendall.

He couldn't leave without giving him the bracelet and saying goodbye, James didn't know how he would communicate with the blonde unless he had to transform his tail into human legs and look for him on land. However, that would require too much of his energy, energy he needs for tomorrow's journey, before he could think of a way to contact Kendall he felt a sudden wave of dread and fear in the pit of his stomach. Something was wrong, he didn't know what, but it's not…normal, he turned to the crystals he had near his bed to see none of them glowing. They would be glowing if an intruder entered in his territory.

No. It was something else, something he could not place his finger on; he noticed a glint in the corner of his eyes and turned back toward the bracelet. Kendall. In less than ten seconds he was already swimming out of the cave toward the pool with the charmed bracelet clutched in his hand.

He didn't gaze at the shore to see if the blonde was there he knew where he would be if he was danger or if he needed to get away from his troubles. Wasting no time he went through the familiar barriers until he reached the pool, he froze when he saw Kendall's familiar body curled into a ball shaking and sobbing. He moved toward him and placed a hand on his shoulder. James immediately wrapped his arms around him and pulled him toward his chest when he began to cry again. The merman just held him, comforting him the only way he knew would calm the blonde, a few moments later Kendall stopped sobbing, but he could still feel him slightly shaking in his arms and his tears falling on his chest.

"Kendall!"

Startled, the blonde looked up and James strained his ears to hear Kendall's name again in the air, he recognized the voice, it was his father looking for his son. The blonde whimpered and curled further into James hold, "please don't let him find me James." Kendall pleaded, "I don't want to go with him or the lady, please."

The merman was puzzled on whom the lady is, but pushed the thought away, concentrating only on protecting the blonde, "I'm going to need you to be really quiet, okay?"

Kendall nodded; James cradled the blonde in his arm while he used the other arm to push himself through the cracks of the stones. He hid behind the rock close to the entrance and straightened his back when he heard loud steps and looked over his hiding spot to see Kendall's father walking on top of the stones.

"Kendall!"

The blonde covered his ears.

"Kendall!"

James narrowed his eyes at him, at the human who made Kendall cry and cower in his arms.

"Stop," he commanded using his Voice.

He stopped and looked at his surroundings with a perplexed expression.

The merman really wanted to order him to fall off the rocks into the water a couple feet away and let the waves of the ocean take him to sea, but decided against it. "Leave and never come back."

He watch the human look around again, confused, before he wordlessly walked and jumped off the rocks toward the trees. James heard him yell Kendall's name in the distance before he held the blonde again in his arms and went back to the pool.

Once he was settled against the stone he was sitting before the blonde's father came, he looked down to see Kendall with a dejected expression, an expression no child should ever have. His eyes were red and the usual sparkle he had was dim and lifeless, he wasn't crying anymore, but he was lax in his arms as if he lost the will to move.

"Kendall," he said softly. The blonde slowly moved his neck, looking up at him, "what happened?"

He shook his head and lowered his head back on his chest. The merman bit his lip nervously, he didn't know if it was time or fate, but whatever forces that was messing with him; it had the worst timing. He lifted his hand and placed it gently on top of his head, he needed to find out what's wrong with the blonde before he could make any decisions on how to handle his situation, with that thought in mind he closed his eyes and connected to his mind. The merman saw images and heard voices and sounds of the past few hours, of him finding his father with another woman and talking about the pearl and his sister to running away from his home and the lady that was trying to take him away from his family.

"Kendall," he said softly before he enveloped in a hug and rubbed his back soothingly. "I am so sorry I wish I could stay to-."

"Wish?" the blonde spoke quietly, his voice raw from sobbing and crying. "What do you mean, wish?"

James clutched his fist, the one where he is holding the bracelet before he took a deep breath and prepared for the worst. "I'm sorry," he said as he laid his cheek on his hair, "I'm…I…I have to leave again Kendall."

He felt the blonde tense in his arms, "summer is almost over?"

"No." He swallowed nervously, surprised that he felt like there was sand in his mouth making it dry and difficult for him to speak. "I have to leave for…important merman business…and I don't know when I am coming back."

Everything was silent except for the sounds of the waves crashing into the shore. James grunted when Kendall wrapped his arms around his neck tightly cutting him off of oxygen a bit as he began to cry again.

"Please don't leave me James," he sobbed; the merman didn't know what's worse leaving Kendall or feeling his heart breaking to pieces for making the blonde cry. "I don't know what I'll do without you, James, I love you; you're my best friend."

James was able to loosen the hold Kendall had around his neck and move back so they were looking eye to eye, "I love you too Kendall."

"Then why do you have to go?" he asked with tears.

_He is too young for this,_ James thought. "I have to go somewhere very far away for important merman business," _and for your safety_.

"Then take me with you," the blonde whispered gripping his arms tightly.

"No, Kendall," he said his voice trembling a bit. He couldn't afford to cry in front of him, not when the blonde was like this. "Your place is here Kendall; you're going to be the man of the house now."

"What does that mean?"

"You'll find out soon, too soon in my opinion." He said brushing his cheeks getting rid of the dry tear trails on his skin. "I have something for you," James raised his other hand and opened it to reveal a bracelet. Kendall's sad expression turned to one of fascination and confusion at the jewel in his palm.

"It's a special bracelet, made especially for you," he said as he slid it through his hand and placed it on his wrist. "Whenever you ever feel sad or alone just place it close to your heart and you'll feel its power, my power that I casted especially for you."

The blonde placed his wrist on top of his heart and looked up at the merman. "I don't want you to go James," he said softly, the idea of James leaving slowly and painfully settling in.

"Me neither."

"This sucks."

He gave him a sad smile, "it does."

Kendall laid his head on his chest and closed his eyes; James did the same and placed his cheek on top of his hair again, both savoring the time they had with each other before they separated.

The merman placed a hand on the back of his head and closed his eyes whispering an enchantment under his breath. Few moments later, James heard soft breathing and lifted his head to see the blonde sleeping peacefully in his arms. The merman moved toward the shore and placed the blonde on the sand gently far away from the water in case he moved in his sleep, when he loosened his grip on his hold. He felt the blonde tighten his right hand on his fingers, Kendall opened his eyes slightly, into slits and his lower lip began to tremble a bit, "James."

"Sleep Kendall," he said using his Voice. "You're very tired."

"I don't want to," he mumbled. "Not if it means waking up without you."

He leaned forward until his nose touched the blonde's, "you have to be strong Kendall for both of us and your family. I know it will be difficult, but you have to be brave."

"Promise me you'll come back," Kendall pleaded.

James curled his pinky with the blonde's, "I promise Kendall I'll come back for you and when I do we'll be together forever."

The merman wiped a tear from his cheek when it escaped from the corner of his eye, "Sleep Kendall, you're very tired and you need to rest."

The blonde did as he was told and closed his eyes and began to breathe softly before his pinky loosened. James softly released his grip before he took his hand and kissed the bracelet then he leaned forward and kissed both his cheeks and his forehead. He leaned back and gave him a small smile before he spoke, "goodbye Kendall."

James went back to the water and left through the cracks in the stone, he decided to wait near the shore behind the stones for someone to pick the blonde up. The sun lowered in the sky a bit making the clear light blue sky turn into a dark shade of orange before he saw a human female walking out of the trees toward the beach. He recognized her immediately when he saw the color of her hair and guessed it was Kendall's mother, he watch her walk to the stones and disappeared for a moment before he saw her carrying a small figure in her arms. James knew it was the blonde when he saw his hair and the familiar rags-clothes, he was wearing.

The merman watched them until they disappeared through the trees, he moved away from the stones toward the ocean letting a few tears escape his eyes before he went underwater toward his cave to prepare for his journey.

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**Hope you liked it! **


	13. Chapter 13

**Chapter 13: Growing Up**

Kendall now understood what James meant when he had to be the man of the house, now that his dad was out of the picture he had to take responsibility his dad-Francis would normally do. He watched over Katie along with Logan when they had to stay with his parents while his worked on filing papers for a divorce. Since Katie was still a baby Mrs. Knight was able to have full custody of her, but Kendall was still debated since his dad had a good lawyer.

Much to the blonde's disappointment he has to visit his dad every other week. Francis tried to make his son see it his way, but he didn't know that Kendall saw his true colors when he hid in the closet the day he found out he was cheating on his mom. He met Francis's lover (fiancé) and quickly tried to stay away from her as much as possible along with his father, he excused himself from having lunch and dinner with them by doing homework (and Logan's just so he could avoid them).

Unfortunately when his dad made them spend time together like a family, it would always be awkward or be held in silence, whenever they tried to start conversations he would only give them a yes, no, or a shrug. When he and his dad were alone Francis would scold him and try to discipline him, he would stop whenever Kendall said child abuse, the older male will scoff and ignore him until he mentioned how he almost beat his mother and could use it against him in court.

That surprised the older male and used the 'you're a child no one will believe you excuse' that is until he named his rights even though he's a minor. There are advantages to having a genius as a best friend who can help you deal with your problem especially in law, Logan did research and talked to his uncle who's a lawyer who specializes in cases that Kendall is in to help him with what he was going through.

After that failed, the couple decided to make him happy by spoiling him and taking him to fun places his mother can't never afford to take him and win his affection. They knew they failed when he would save the money they gave him to buy his mother and his baby sister presents or necessities and started calling them by their first names instead of mom and dad, what Francis's fiancé most desperately wanted.

Half a year went by and Francis's new wife was pregnant, they lost the custody battle to Jennifer; however Kendall still had to visit his father at least three times a month and stay with him during some of his summer vacation. Knowing how much his son loved to go to the beach he purposely made it his goal to take Kendall to his new home during the summer much to the blonde's dismay.

During the first few weeks of summer Kendall would sit on the same boulder near the pool, waiting to see James' familiar white tail to greet him, his hope slowly dimmed as the years went by with no sign from him. The majority of his summer was spent with his father; he would place a fake smile and spent time with Francis and his new family wherever they chose to go for their vacation.

Fortunately, he was saved from being with his father when he began to go to summer camps with Logan, however he couldn't go to the beach anymore except when summer was nearly over. His hopes were always dashed when he didn't see James, he would either sit on the boulder for hours until his skin was sunburned or in the pool until his skin was prune-y.

As he got older he spent less time waiting at the beach and more time in his new job at the supermarket picking up carts left over from customers to save up money for himself and his family, even though he lived close to the beach they weren't wealthy, but have enough money to live comfortably.

Instead of remembering spending his time with James as a child they were replaced by being with his father, his mistress (wife and step mom), and his step sister, and being Logan's buddy at camp in the great outdoors. Those memories started to fade and were tucked into the far corners of his mind as he grew into the role of being the man of the house, the picture he made of James and the calendar he used to keep track of time was buried deep in his closet as well as the shells James got him from Hawaii.

The only thing he had left was the bracelet the brunette gave him, Kendall forgot completely that a merman gave it to him instead he thought he bought it at a gift shop somewhere in the coast and never bothered to take it off. Whenever he messed with one of the pearls or placed a hand on it he felt a warm feeling in his chest giving him a sense of comfort and security. Especially when the jewels got wet or close to water, he felt as small pricks on his skin mostly on his fingertips and temple, but he paid them no mind.

Unknown to the blonde, James was with him every step of the way during his difficult childhood. The merman knew how Kendall felt despite being miles away from each other, he knew when he was mad, depressed, and when he was crying when his tear drops fell on the bracelet. James will take time from his day to meditate and send reassuring and loving messages through their bond such as kissing his temple or holding his hand. Much to his disappointment he also knew that the blonde was starting to forget him, he was almost afraid he was losing him until he felt their bond in the bracelet. The bond right now was the only thing keeping him from swimming back to Kendall possibly risking his and the blonde's life.

Since James left Carlos had been pushing him and giving him encouragement whenever he grew to his depressive state when he missed the blonde child. Carlos would sometimes not let him know how many days or weeks passed so James wouldn't think too much on how much he has been away from him, not being a part of Kendall's life was breaking his heart.

What's worse is the news he has been hearing after Griffin's death, Jett has already begun harnessing powers from Potentia's, for his kingdom to have the equal powers as others in the ocean. This is the first time in eons where one of the seven kingdoms did not have a Royal, it was tradition to have a Royal in every kingdom so there won't be any competition for power.

The only thing keeping him and the other kingdoms from going to war is the triton being held in the throne room. Only the Royals are the only merpeople who can declare war with other kingdoms and have the power to control one of the seven golden tritons, the only thing that could equal the power of a Royal is a vast amount of Potentia's. Unfortunately Griffin was the one and only Royal in the kingdom and in the entire Western seaboard (Pacific Ocean) and did not have an heir ending the Royal bloodline for good.

As long as Jett doesn't have the power of the triton he won't be able to put the kingdom in turmoil, but now that Griffin is gone and he is the new ruler there was no telling what he would do with that power. James didn't want to think about it especially since Jett will mostly come after him to harness some of his powers. However as long as Jett believes he isn't part of that world then he would give up his search and hopefully soon so he could get back to the blonde.

Jett was diligent, it took him nearly a decade for him to stop his search for the brunette and during that time James had been in hiding moving from one continent to the other. He had now been to almost every part of the world, Australia, South America, Europe, and Asia, the minute Carlos told him Jett stopped his search he didn't hesitate to go back to the blonde.

James knew Kendall forgot about him due to being mature at an early age, but he was determined to go back to him. He made a promise and he intended to fulfill it, he also knew that Kendall was now at an age to court or as humans call it "date", the merman knew he loved Kendall more than a friend after sensing Kendall grow into a young man his feeling grew. James wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of his life with the blonde, it was uncommon for a merman or mermaid to fall for a human, but possible since many had become mates, but it has been so limited due to not wanting the human race to find out about their existence.

The merman was currently in a cave near the coast of Italia (Italy) packing the few belongings he has for the long trip ahead of him to reach Kendall. He knew he was getting ahead of himself at the thought of spending the rest of his life with Kendall, the last time he had seen him was when he was a child and even though he was potentially bonded with him he never was with him physically. That is all about to change once he goes back to the pool, Kendall now rarely goes to the beach except with another human, he believed was his best friend, to hang out in the shore or spent a day under the sun. He needed to call the blonde to him once he is close to his destination and hope he will answer, he estimated it will take him weeks to reach the Pacific Ocean and had to wait for the water to warm so he can travel and hopefully be there in the first or second week of the summer solstice.

Now that Jett stopped his search for James Carlos will travel with his best friend to return home and to make sure he stayed out of trouble which is ironic since James usually gets Carlos out of trouble. He also wanted to see some of his old friends he kept in contact and try to get some of their old lives back together, the latino immediately knew he was going back to the blonde and didn't even bother to talk him out of it since he was hell bent to see him again.

When dawn came James quickly began his journey back home while a certain blonde prepared to go to sleep unaware of the events to come in a few weeks.

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**I AM SO SO SO SO SO SO VERY SORRY! I know this chapter is way over due and that some of you are mad at me because of it. I would also like to say I am not abandoning this story no matter what (Nuria and other reviewers) I have just been going through a bit of writer's block, I'm also having personal troubles, and I am also preparing myself to go to a university. Right now I am going to learn how to manage my time so something like this won't happen again (I really really hate writer's block). **

**Do not worry I started this story and I intend to finish it no matter what and I don't care how long it takes me I WILL FINISH IT!**

**Also I would like to thank those who are still reading this fic and hope you guys will to still be with this fic in the future. Your comments and critcism are always welcome. Thank you to those who favorited, followed, and reviewd. I hoped you liked this chapter and again sorry for the delay. **


	14. Chapter 14

**Chapter 14: Signs**

"_Kendall."_

_Shifting in his sleep, he groaned a bit wondering why someone would wake him up so-, "Ow!"_

_He hissed in pain when he felt a sharp poke on his shoulder, opening his eyes he blinked when he realized he was surrounded by damp rock walls and a small stream. Looking around he recognized he was in the cave he wasn't allowed to, but on occasion go to with Logan or by himself. His brows scrunched in confusion as he sat up and rubbed his shoulder. Turning his neck he saw a light and slowly got up from his sitting position and walked toward it, he blinked letting his eyes adjust to the sudden brightness. Taking another step forward he heard a splash and realized that instead of sand he stepped into a small pool of water surrounded by large boulders. He looked over his shoulder to see the ocean instead of the cave he was in a few moments ago._

_Brushing the dirty blonde hair out of his eyes, he realized he only had light blue swimming trunks, he saw movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see a glitter of light between the cracks of the boulders for a split second before it disappeared._

"_Kendall."_

_He froze when he heard a soft warm breeze pass by his ear. _

"_Kendall."_

_Startled he looked at his surroundings again to find the source of the melodious voice to see he was alone. There was a spark of light out of the corner of his eye and quickly turned to see it disappear around the corner, moving forward he slipped between a crack to see the light move again disappearing behind another boulder._

_This continued until he began to pant for breathe and his fingers were red and sore from touching the rough textures of the boulders. He would not be surprised if he finds blisters on his feet or find his back and arms sun burned, he also wondered how he hadn't reach the ocean it, looking up he realized the water was only a few feet away. Surely, he would have made it there by now there weren't that many rocks in the shoreline, certainly not boulders that reached his waist except farther in land. _

_What kind of dream is this?_

_He turned again to see the spark of light, deciding to give up he took a step back, he gasped when he slipped and felt himself falling backwards. He shut his eyes and tensed his muscles preparing himself for the impact and the upcoming pain, but it never did instead he felt a soft warm surface and arms wrapping around his hips and chest. _

"_Kendall."_

_Tilting his neck, he saw a brunette with a blinding smile looking down at him, his breathe hitched when he saw the intensity his hazel orbs held at him. Or was it for him?_

_The blonde was confused when he felt happiness burst deep within his chest and his lips parted to speak, his voice on the tip of his tongue but was unable to use it. He felt a sense of déjà vu being this close to him, why was he so familiar?_

_He was surprised when the emotion in his eyes changed, he seemed almost sad, but was overshadowed with what seemed to be joy or some other emotion he couldn't quite name._

_Without thinking the blonde moved in his arms and placed his arms around him and laid his head on his chest, he heard his heartbeat increase for a moment and a sharp intake of breathe. The arms around him tightened and he felt some weight placed on his hair, "Kendall."_

_He blinked and was met with darkness._

And that is how Kendall woke up one night feeling cold and alone in bed despite being curled underneath his thick blanket. He shook his head muttering to himself it was nothing more but a dream and tried for the rest of the night to ignore the feeling in his chest that said otherwise.

A week later he had another dream except this time he opened his eyes to see he was in the arms of the hazel eye brunette instead of the cave, and this time he got a good look at him. He seemed to be a year or two older than him; his hair was short only reaching beneath his ear and the nape of his neck and had bangs covering his forehead. For some odd reason he expected it to be a bit longer, he ignored it and focused his attention on his perfectly sculpted face, his eyes standing out the most. He had long eyelashes making his eyes seem large and the hazel color holding an unspoken emotion for him as they stared into his orbs.

The blonde moved his gaze to his plump pink lips and moved down his neck toward his wide chest, he realized it was wet making it glisten under the light rays of the sun, he couldn't help but gape at the physique of the hazel eye boy. He can feel the muscles of his arms around him and see his abdomen was well built, he was more lean than buff and wondered if-

Time seemed to freeze when he heard a soft melodic soft sound and looked up to see the brunette laugh, feeling his cheeks heat up he quickly looked away and bowed his head in humiliation. He felt a soft touch on his chin and felt his head move to see James smile; he leaned down and lightly rubbed their noses together making the blonde's lips form into a smile of his own. He moved to whisper in his ear making him blush again and his heart skip a beat eliciting another laugh from him and was also tried to ignore the fact he found himself sitting on his lap.

He ignored the small pang in his heart when he was back in his bed in the familiar darkness of his room, the only light he had was the moon's rays coming from his window.

On his third dream he found out the hazel eye brunette was a mermaid- uh…merman. He was surprised when he realized he was sitting on a large white surface and saw it stretch a few feet from where he was and instead of legs or feet was a tailfin. He saw the rays of the sun reflecting on his scales in tiny lights changing from colors pink to yellow and white, the blonde was mostly confused why he wasn't shocked of this discovery. The blonde was startled when the merman curled his tail so his fins were next to him; he placed a hand on his wrist and gently pushed until Kendall's palm touched his tail. The blonde's lips parted in awe at how warm and soft it felt underneath his palm, he felt the muscle shift and yelped in surprise when he felt water hit his face.

He heard the familiar sweet sound of the merman's laugh, seeing his tail shift he realized the merman splashed, a moment later he smirked and cupped his hands. In less than five seconds the merman was blinking water out of his eyes and was wiping the saltwater from his face as Kendall laughed. They continued to spend the rest of their time together getting each other drenched until the blonde woke up from his dream.

The dreams continued, for the next couple of weeks, at first he only had one with the merman every week, but it quickly shifted to twice then thrice a week. He couldn't help but have the feeling of familiarity with the merman, after every dream, he also wondered if they ever met or knew each other. He would know for a fact if he ever saw a guy like that walking in the beach, he was very…_attractive_, something inside of him twisted uncomfortably at the thought of the merman anything more than that. However he couldn't help but feel his stomach doing flip flops at him, he also couldn't help thinking like a girl acting toward her crush much to his dismay.

He was started to think it was strange to have the same dream about the merman every week, at first he thought it was his subconscious giving him a dream of a beautiful man he would very much not mind spending time with. Kendall knew he liked boys more than girls from a young age, he preferred being with them than the opposite sex and began to have thoughts and dreams that involve kissing and being in bed with hot guys. It was only ideal to dream about them and being with him in his perfect world that sleep could only give him, but why this particular one and why a merman?

The blonde didn't question it much since he very much liked the guy in his dreams and he wasn't going to think that these dreams meant something in real life; that will be weird. No, he is perfectly content seeing this one only in his dreams, besides he had something to look forward to in his sleep other than a rest from a hard day's work. He also didn't have any plans on stopping the dreams anytime soon.

He never thought about his repeatable dreams until one day he had the urge to go to the beach, he came home one day after working at the grocery store only thinking about the homework he and Logan will work on (mostly Logan) and which excuse to come up with to avoid seeing his dad this upcoming weekend. He was so deep in his thoughts he never realized he changed direction instead of finding himself inside his home he was at the beach looking at the ocean. Blinking, he scrunched his eyebrows in confusion before he shook his head and turned back home.

When it happened again, he blamed it on the number of home works and projects Ms. Collins gave him for his marine biology class along with other assignments she gave him for the week and ignored it again on the third time. However on the fourth he wasn't distracted and this time felt a pull toward the beach, giving in to the urge he stood there looking at the beach expecting something to happen. He didn't know where this anticipation came from, but after fifteen minutes of standing there and doing nothing he turned around and went back home. This continued for the next few days until he began to sit and just look at the ocean or walk on the beach for an hour or a half before he went home. He thought it was nice to have a break and have a change of pace and didn't ponder about this sudden new habit.

The urge deep in his chest calmed until spring arrived, Kendall didn't know why but for years he would spend majority of his time by the boulders and rocks on the shore with Logan or by himself. He didn't know where this habit came from, but he paid no mind since he thought of it as a getaway from his thoughts concerning his father. This was also the place where he would come up with ideas trying to not be with his father during his summer vacation; however he wouldn't have to come up with an excuse this year because Francis and his family were going to the Bahamas. He asked if the blonde wanted to go, but he refused and didn't give him an explanation before he said a quick goodbye and ended the call.

It was the middle of April only a month and a week left for summer vacation, he and Logan, mostly Logan, have been preparing for the upcoming final exams and other projects for their final grade. For his marine biology class he had to make an essay that has to do with the study of a specific ocean life or subject in detail its history, its significance, and contribution to the world. The first thing that popped up into his mind was the large shells his mother had in the living room and his bracelet.

He quickly grabbed his things when the bell rang signaling the end of the day, before he could meet up with Logan he decided for a quick drink from the water fountain. After he wiped his mouth his eyes widened when he saw a stone from his bracelet glowing a light blue hue. He twisted his wrist and noticed the other stones also glowed, but the blue stone was the brightest compared to the rest. With the tips of his fingers he rubs the jewel to feel it warm on his skin; he tilted his head in curiosity when he saw something move on the surface-,

"Kendall!"

He quickly turned to see his best friend giving him a curious expression, "you okay?"

After a moment of silence he slowly nodded, "yeah I'm fine."

Logan gave him his I-know-your-lying look, he always does that when the blonde tries to convince the brunette he was perfectly fine after he fell on the ice or got injured after every hockey practice.

Kendall walked over to him and patted his shoulder, "I'm fine, I was just thinking about something and lost track of time, let's go home."

He sighed at the blonde's 'reassuring' smile and took his word before they both walked out of school. Kendall looked down at his bracelet to see the stones' glow gone before he turned back to Logan and began talking to him the thought of the bracelet tucked away in his mind to think in another time. He never noticed his bracelet glow again when it was lightly sprayed with water when he passed by an elderly woman's lawn after she turned on her sprinklers to water her law.

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**Thank you for the awesome reviews! I also thank those who have favorited and followed this fanfic (Welcome new readers!) I was able to have time and fight my writer's block, I hope you enjoyed this chapter.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Chapter 15: Riddles**

All of the stones on his bracelet glowed brightly when he placed his hands underneath the faucet of the bathroom sink after he finished brushing his teeth. He hid his hand behind his back when he went to his room making sure the glow wasn't noticeable in case his mom or sister saw him; once he locked the door he sat on his bed and twisted his wrist gazing at the stones with an intense gaze. He examined it in different angles and with his thumb and forefinger he gently slid the bracelet-

"_No Kendall."_

He gasped and looked up, his eyes searched his room for anything out of the ordinary, but nothing seemed out of place. His room had the same sky blue color paint since he was a kid, filled with posters of movies, bands, and hockey along with shelves holding his trophies and small trinkets. There was a desk with a laptop and papers scattered across the desktop with his backpack on the floor close to his black swiveling chair. His sports back was on the ground next to his desk with his hockey sticks against the wall, his closet was open and filled with his clothes some were on the ground from his haste to get to school on time.

"_Don't take it off."_

His gaze returned to the bracelet to see that the glow dimmed when it was halfway off his hand.

"_Please."_

His breathe hitched as he felt fear, dread, and desperation weigh heavily on his chest, staring down at the bracelet he watched as the glow brightens in hope. The feelings of despair were replaced by longing, serenity, and warmth, just like in his dreams; he felt his eyes droop slightly as he watched the glow lull him to a comforting haze. Unconsciously, he slid the bracelet back into place and his body relaxed to the gentle spell the stones were giving him. It was as if he had been watching the ocean from dawn to dusk as he saw the color of the stones change from turquoise to emerald, blood orange to fuchsia. He felt the cool breeze of the wind hitting his face, and felt the warm rays of the sun kissing his skin. If he paid attention to the background and the stones he could hear the faint noise of the waves hitting the shore and see the water on the surface move in synch to the colors. He released a breathe of tranquility as he fell deeper into the bracelet's charm, finally, he closed his eyes and fell backwards expecting to fall on his soft bed instead he fell into a pair of open awaiting arms.

"_Goodnight Kendall."_

* * *

The next morning when the blonde opened his eyes he woke up to see the bracelet in front of him, he rubbed his sleepy eyes and sat up before he stared down at his wrist.

_What the fuck happened?_

His first thought of the day haunted him for the rest of the morning and the afternoon, he made sure to move the bracelet before he got anywhere close to water and tried to think about what he did before he went to sleep. All he remembered were different assortments of colors before everything went black, normally he would have ignored it and believed it was a dream, but it felt different from the rest. His dreams were realistic and happy, but this felt _too_ real for his taste almost creepy, he eyed the bracelet during school and when he got home, he didn't bother trying to remove it from his wrist feeling as if something was stopping him, but he ignored it altogether.

He shook his head when he was in his bedroom contemplating what happened last night, he was about to give up and blame it on his imagination when he suddenly felt a sharp pain in his chest. The blonde cried out in pain and leaned forward clutching his shirt and suddenly felt a desperate urge to go to the beach. Normally these urges were small, harmless, and could easily be dealt with, however this one was deep and painful and needed to be dealt with severely, without a second thought he got up and ran. It was a good thing his mom and Katie were out shopping together, they would not to question why he suddenly ran out of the house and took a short cut to the beach. He jumped and tripped over tree roots and dodged and hit branches as he sprinted over rough terrain as he got to his destination, he stopped and panted the minute he stepped on the sand.

Crying out in pain he got on his knees and cradled his wrist to his chest. Clenching his fist he felt his wrist as if it was dunked in a boiling pot of water, burning his skin, when the pain subsided to a tolerant throb he took deep breathes refilling his lungs with fresh air and looked up to see the ocean.

After a few minutes of seeing nothing out of the ordinary he shook his head and shuffled to a tree, leaning back against it he took deep breathes and closed his eyes. He could already feel his legs sore from the run and the bruises developing on his knees and arms as he had no idea where the desire to go to the beach came from, his thoughts went back to last night remembering the bracelet glow before everything was a blur.

Opening his eyes, he gave a confused and aggravated expression at the ocean, "what's going on?" he asked quietly to the water as if they held the answer.

He closed his eyes not noticing his bracelet glowing again or realizing his answer was underneath the ocean miles away.

* * *

"I'm so sorry," the merman said quietly while holding his wrist with his bracelet close to his heart as he stared at the surface, yearning to be back with the blonde. He was currently lying on a rock using a soft sea plant as a pillow staring at the sky as it changed from baby blue to orange sky.

He was only a couple weeks away from returning to Kendall in time for the summer solstice when the water temperature is right to inhabit. He had been sending the blonde messages to tell him of his coming while he sleeps, the merman made sure not to use too much of his power to alert Jett or to disturb the human's much needed rest. Their get together-s may not be real in reality, but it's all he has to be able to be close to Kendall, the bond was strong when the blonde was asleep, when his unconscious is easy to access, or was in contact with water.

As Kendall sleeps he meditates or rest to be able to see and touch him through their bond, it was the first time he saw him in nearly a decade and he had grown to be a handsome young man. His hair was a lot shorter from the last time he saw him only having one bang nearly covering his right eyebrow, he was taller now almost his height, his smile was larger showing his white teeth and his laugh was deeper. The only thing that was the same was his eyes; the same emerald color that first caught his attention was still mesmerizing when he was a child.

He never felt so happy to have him back in his arms, everything felt right when his body molded into his like a missing piece in a puzzle. The only thing keeping him from wasting all of his power to get back to the beach was being able to use it to see Kendall while he was asleep, he would also try to use it to make the blonde fall asleep so he could see him.

When he was touching water, he will make his presence known by channeling his energy through their bracelets making the stones lighten like stars and send warmth and comfort through it.

He found a place to rest for the evening and was relaxing from the day's journey when he felt their bond being threatened and quickly went into a deep state of meditation to see what the problem was. He immediately felt his blood turn ice cold when he sensed the blonde trying to remove the bracelet, remove the only connection he has to Kendall, without it their bond will weaken and he won't be able to contact him in his dreams. Using his powers he quickly sent a message to him and hoped he would listen, he made sure to use the stones' charm to mesmerize the blonde and lull him to sleep. Once he was unconscious and in his arms James held him close, tightening his hold on him as if he was going to lose him any second, after calming down he whispered using his Voice telling Kendall to **never** remove the bracelet under any circumstances.

The merman was so worried about losing the connection so badly he never thought about the consequences his power will have on the bond they shared. He didn't notice until later the next day, he felt Kendall's pain and the bracelet pulsing on his wrist, looking down he realized he forgot to remove the energy he used to reach Kendall causing the blonde to act on impulse on the messages the merman sent of his upcoming arrival.

Guilt-stricken he used his energy to send soothing and calming pulses to his bracelet, he was currently hating himself for being stupid and irresponsible, he never wanted to give him pain only cherish him. When darkness came he swam to a cave he was temporary staying in and slept.

_He opened his eyes to see the find himself sitting in the familiar pool and looked down to see the blonde staring at his wrist with a perplexed expression. Surprising the blonde, he gently took his wrist and brushed his lips on the skin before he kissed it, "I'm so sorry Kendall."_

_The blonde looked at him shocked to hear the merman's voice for the first time; he swallowed nervously, when he felt his stomach twist and turn when he felt his breath hot on his skin when he spoke. He was more hesitant to sleep that night almost afraid what he would find if he closed his eyes, however after a day of hockey practice he was more exhausted and welcomed the sleep that came over him. At first he was frightened he found himself back with his-the merman, but was overcome by his sudden interest when he saw his bracelet glow again. He never noticed the merman give him a remorseful expression before he took his wrist._

_Curious he asked what the merman meant, "for what?"_

"_For using my energy, I should have been more careful." He said quietly, almost like a whisper, but was able to hear due to their close proximity. _

_Kendall stared at him as the merman interlocked his fingers with his, his eyes widened when he saw he was wearing a glowing bracelet similar to his own on shape and color. "Your bracelet, why-?"_

"_You'll find out soon Kendall, I can promise you that and I also promise you that I won't use my powers like that again." The merman looked down at him, the corner of his lips twitching as if he wanted to say more, but changed his mind when he shook his head. _

"_What do you-,"_

"_Sleep Kendall."_

_The blonde couldn't break his gaze away from is hazel eyes when he suddenly felt drowsy and tired. Unconsciously he comforted himself on his lap and laid his head on his chest, the sound of his beating heart making his eyes droop, "I-I don't want to-."_

_Kendall still had questions regarding their bracelets and what they meant, he didn't want to think his dreams meant anything in real life. He knew he should have after having them for so long, but he enjoyed having an escape from his reality, a break from the norm, but now that his dreams were connected to the bracelet, crossing the bridge from fantasy to realism, he wanted to know more about it. _

_His hopes of having his questions answered were dashed when he felt the merman's lips on his forehead making him close his eyes. _

"_Goodnight Kendall."_

_James finally let himself close his own eyes and listen to Kendall's soft breathing as they both slept in each other's arms. _

* * *

**I'm not going to bother with my excuses, however I will not lie this chapter was difficult to write. I hope you enjoy it and for those who are maybe getting tired of the wait, they will meet soon I can promise you that. **

**Anyway, thank you to those who reviewed, favorited, and follow this fanfic and I also hope you enjoyed this chapter and to update as soon as I can. **


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